


Always

by Squatta



Series: 'Always' Universe [1]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Childhood Friends, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-20
Updated: 2014-03-07
Packaged: 2018-01-13 03:45:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 47,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1211377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Squatta/pseuds/Squatta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kagami's parents move to America while he stays in Japan and moves in with his aunt and uncle. At his new school he befriends a boy who changes his life. AoKaga.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on my FF.net account on 5/13/13. Finished on 9/12/13.  
> Think of this as a revised version from the one on my FF account. Just minimal tweaks and corrections, nothing about the story will change.
> 
> The fan art that inspired this story: http://naughtysensei.tumblr.com/post/44291138915/p-4  
> Unfortunately, the original artist deleted it from their pixiv, so that's my only way of showing it.

"Ok, why don't you introduce yourself to the class?"

The young, red-haired boy nervously focused his gaze to the center of his new classroom. Fiddling his thumbs together, he managed to gather up the courage to speak in front of his new classmates.

"H-Hello, my name is Kagami Taiga. It's nice to meet you all, please take care of me…" The teacher gave him a gentle pat on the back and showed him to where his seat was going to be for the rest of the year.

The young boy walked in awkward silence toward a middle row of seats, all the while looking down as to not meet anyone's gaze. ' _Being the new kid is really awkward'_ , Kagami thought, feeling a bit of sympathy for all of the new students to his old school he had witnessed over the years.

Kagami's parents had a long and difficult discussion as to whether or not to take him to America since they both needed to transfer there for his father's job. In the end, they thought it was best for their son to stay in Japan - at least until he was done with elementary school. He now lived with his aunt and uncle which he really didn't know all too well. They were nice enough people but it still felt kind of strange living with someone other than his parents. He wasn't sure if he was regretting staying behind or not. On one hand, he didn't really feel like leaving Japan or moving – and America was so far away and so foreign that it may have been overwhelming. On the other hand, he had to move anyway, and it was still pretty far, leaving behind his friends at his previous school.

It was already his first day in class and he was starting to wander off in his thoughts as he tried to imagine what it would've been like to have gone to America instead. Scanning the room looking at his new classmates, one stood out. He stood out at first because his head was down on his desk, looked like he was sleeping, but he also had fairly dark skin which accompanied his short, dark-blue hair. ' _I guess he's not from around here either'_ , Kagami thought, ' _Either that or he has some foreign blood in him'_. He stared a little while longer at the sleeping boy before moving on to the rest of the class, a little further up he saw a girl with long pink hair. ' _I bet she's cute_ ,' he thought, although he couldn't see her face, and he definitely wasn't paying attention to what anyone looked like while he was standing up in front of the classroom just a while ago. He was way too nervous for that.

"Aomine-kun, please do not sleep in class!" amidst the teacher's droning there was a sudden outburst. Apparently she had (finally) noticed the boy who was sleeping and shouted loud enough that the class next door probably heard. The lazy boy lifted his head slowly and rubbed his eyes as all attention was on him.

"Ahh, I wasn't sleeping, I was just resting my eyes," he said in a drowsy tone, not convincing anyone.

"Aomine-kun, stop sleeping in class so much! Please do your sleeping only at home!" the teacher finished her lecture and turned back to the board.

"Dai-chan, how many times have I told you that sleeping in class is bad!" The girl with the pink hair had turned around and whispered to this 'Aomine' in a scolding manner, her big doll-like eyes were furrowed under her brows as she scolded the boy.

"Whatever!" He whispered back and propped his head up with his left hand, seeming like he was going to fall back asleep at any moment. Kagami gave a small laugh at the situation that had unfolded in front of him and class went on without any more disturbances.

* * *

Besides that little incident, Kagami's school life went fairly normally. After about a week, he had noticed that the Aomine from his class was a pretty popular guy (and found out his first name was Daiki). He seemed to have a good amount of friends who would greet him but he really only saw him around the girl with the pink hair on a regular basis, who he learned was named 'Momoi' but Aomine called her by her first name, 'Satsuki'.

"He calls her 'Satsuki' and she calls him 'Dai-chan'… first names… are they dating?" they were young but puppy love isn't an uncommon thing. Although Kagami saw them together often, they never acted like a couple, not even holding hands, so he was unsure if that was their relationship at all. In fact, she saw him scolding him more than anything; she was more like his mother… Okay, maybe a sister. A couple kids had become friendly with Kagami over the week but he hadn't grown close with any of them yet. Obviously, it would take time to do something like that but none of them seemed like they interacted to make friends, almost like they were doing it out of obligation because he was the new kid.

Kagami sighed walking out of the school building after staying behind to talk with a teacher so he could get caught up with the lessons he had missed out on before transferring. He decided to take the back way just to check out the rest of the school he hadn't seen. On the way, he noticed there was a basketball court near the school and heard the sound of a ball hitting against the concrete which caught his attention. Glancing over Kagami saw a familiar face: that Aomine kid. He watched him for a minute or so playing by himself, and even though the net was at the height that adults shot, Aomine easily got in a couple baskets.

"Wow…" Kagami said low, under his breath, watching the other boy performing footwork he'd only seen on tv.

Kagami then noticed that, again, Momoi was with him too, but she sat off to the side of the court reading a book, but Kagami was entranced by the other young boy's amazing skills and continued to watch until finally, Aomine noticed that they had company.

"Oh, hey, you're that new kid in our class… Ah… can't really remember your name, sorry," he said stopping the ball and walking up to the fence.

"Ah, it's Kagami. Kagami Taiga."

"Oh yeah, yeah, your name is pretty cool," Aomine said with a smirk, "Do you like basketball too?" he asked holding up the ball.

"Um, I've never really played or watched seriously, but I just thought what you were doing was really cool," Kagami blushed thinking it was kind of embarrassing that he got caught gawking.

"You should try it! I never really had anyone else to play with, and Satsuki would rather just watch than play. I have a feeling you'd be good!" The boy grinned and beckoned Kagami over.

"R-Really?" Kagami was surprised he was being so nice to him considering he had forgotten who he was despite them sharing a class for a week now.

' _I guess he's just a little slow with things like that_ ,' Kagami thought. A little excited, Kagami rushed over to the court and walked around the chain-link fence onto the court which seemed so much bigger than it did on the other side of the fence. Even walking on the asphalt of the court felt totally different than on regular concrete; being on the presence of the court alone just gave him a jolt of an adrenaline rush.

"Here, catch!" Aomine said suddenly, tossing the ball in Kagami's direction.

With his reflexes reacting just in time, Kagami managed to successfully catch the ball which was going surprisingly fast as he soon felt his hands tingle from the inertia of the ball. This felt almost… exhilarating. Although excitement was starting to run through his body, he wasn't quite sure what to do now that he had the ball in his hands and did nothing beyond holding it.

"Try dribbling it a couple times and try to make a shot," Aomine said, eagerly motioning with his hands the actions as if he had an invisible ball.

Kagami bounced the ball on the asphalt a few times and positioned himself at about the distance he saw Aomine make his shots. He tried best to mimic what he had seen on TV and what he had seen Aomine do just now and created a stance and threw the ball as hard as he could towards the net. Soaring through the sky, it hit the backboard but barely scraped against the rim of the net as it fell to the ground. Kagami was a bit disappointed that he missed so badly although it was his first try, but then he heard a shout beside him.

"Woah! That's pretty good that you managed to hit as high as the backboard on your first try! I don't think a lot of kids could shoot that high right away, I knew you looked like you could be a good player!" excitedly, Aomine ran to retrieve the ball and ran back to Kagami, beaming with enthusiasm. "I should try to teach you some basics! Oh… that is, if you want to. " Noticing that he may have been getting ahead of himself, Aomine tried to not make it seem that he was forcing all of this on the new kid. But what he heard next made his smile quickly return.

"Ah, of course! You're playing was really cool and I want to be able to shoot it in the basket as easily as you can!" The two boys eagerly began to talk with excitement as Aomine began to show Kagami some beginner pointers of basketball.

Momoi, who had been taking peeks from behind her book ever since Kagami walked onto the court, gave a small giggle to herself. ' _Those two are going to get along really well, I can tell_ ,' she said to herself, returning to her reading.


	2. Chapter 2

Ever since Kagami started hanging out with his new friend, Aomine, he was having a lot more fun than he thought he would in this new town. He never thought the kid who managed to make a scene in class on his first day would end up being a friend he became close with surprisingly quickly over the past few months. He had managed to warm up to Momoi as well since she always seemed to be around. He found out that she and Aomine were in fact just friends, from a very young age at that. She did have a couple of other friends who were females, but she seemed to have more fun being with Aomine and Kagami.

To Kagami's surprise, he found out she knew quite a lot about basketball herself; probably from being around Aomine so much. She seemed to have picked up the game quite well, although she preferred to watch instead of play. What shocked Kagami even further was that she could actually deeply analyze his habits while playing and often made suggestions to better his game - and most of the time it worked. That's not to say that he and Aomine's almost daily after school practice wasn't what helped him improve the most, with Aomine also giving tips along the way.

Once Kagami got the hang of basketball, the other kids (some of which who were older) that went to the court from time to time decided on playing a game with Aomine and Kagami. Needless to say, Kagami and Aomine's team crushed the other team in a fantastic win. This was Kagami's first taste of victory and he did not want to stop experiencing something as exhilarating as the heat of competition. Although he always lost to Aomine when they played one-on-one, he hoped one day he could catch up with his new best friend.

Hanging out at each other's house became something they started to do recently as well; something that only they could do together since Momoi always headed to her own home after their practice. Not that they didn't enjoy Momoi's company. Although she nagged at Aomine from time-to-time (which Kagami often found amusing), she was fun to be with and offered some good advice, but sometimes it was nice being "just the guys". They often sat around playing video games or eating or talking about other nonsense, but usually ended up back to talking about basketball. They would talk about their favorite teams and players, mostly in the NBA that they could only dream of being in one day. Since Kagami's parents now lived in America, he hoped that maybe one day he could go to a game whenever he visited. What he really hoped for was to take Aomine with him; he wouldn't have gotten so into basketball without the guy! He even fantasized about being in the front row with Aomine, cheering on from the front row. Although getting a front row seat was unlikely, he could dream, couldn't he?

A few weeks before summer break, Aomine had excitedly asked if it was okay for Kagami to spend the night at his house that weekend.

"I have something important to tell you!" he said with a huge grin. His stomach fluttering from excitement even though he had no clue what it could be, Kagami eagerly nodded and went straight to his house to ask his aunt and uncle if it would be alright. Aomine lived surprisingly close so it was only a 20 minute walk to each other's house. Kagami sprinted to his friend's house making it only a 15 minute trip.

* * *

"Summer camp?" Kagami questioned as Aomine told him the big news he had been eager to share.

"Yeah! A basketball summer camp! It's only a week long but we'll be able to play against other kids and we get to learn new things. Apparently some really good players from all across Japan are going to be there helping! Doesn't that sound awesome?" Aomine had excitedly told Kagami the news, a huge grin across his face.

"Y-Yeah!" processing the new information, Kagami jumped up in excitement.

"I heard the guys that are coming to coach are some of the best in Japan! We have to go, there's a fee but your aunt and uncle would pay, right?" Aomine asked hopefully.

"Of course! They bought my basketball and shoes so I think they'd pay for something like that." Kagami didn't really ask much of his aunt and uncle so they were a bit surprised and a little pleased when he finally asked for basketball equipment. They also seemed happy that Kagami looked like he was getting along fine with becoming accustomed to his new school and home, so he figured they'd be more than happy to go along with this one request.

* * *

So as Kagami hoped, his aunt and uncle agreed to pay for the basketball summer camp. He had never had more fun, especially since he managed to get assigned on a team with Aomine. All of the kids on his team became quick friends and they practiced hard but learned a lot. At the end of the camp they held a small competition and their team won first place. The second place team had a very strong player about their age who wore glasses, but he didn't linger much longer after the game was over.

That summer was unforgettable. Not only because of the camp, but because of all the other things Kagami did. He often met up with his former teammates to play but of course, more often than not, he played one-on-one with Aomine. In fact, he did almost everything with Aomine and there was rarely a day they weren't together. Kagami got to experience Aomine's other hobbies of catching crayfish and cicadas. The cicadas were kind of creepy and the crayfish pinched him often but he still enjoyed the time he spent catching them.

On really hot days they'd head down to the convenience store to buy ice pops and sat under the shade of a large tree just talking about nonsense, sometimes Momoi came along as well. They spent the night at each other's house and never seemed to get bored of each other's company. This didn't stop when the next school year came. Since neither of them were necessarily the "best" students in their class, they often did their homework together with Momoi since she seemed to be a lot smarter than the two of them combined. But sometimes they decided just to try on their own since Momoi was a bit tyrannical in her tutoring.

Next school year they were going to go to middle school, so they even started to research which school they wanted to try to get into. They decided on Teikou since they were rumored to have a good basketball team. They couldn't wait to be on an official team together and studied as hard as they could with Momoi so their grades could get them accepted (of course Momoi was applying as well).

Then, Kagami got a call from his father.

"…What?"

"We'd like you to come to America starting next school year, we only planned to let you stay in Japan until you were done with elementary school, and you'll be in middle school next year, right?"

Kagami's face dropped, "Yeah but… I don't want to leave Japan, I already decided on what middle school I want to go to! I want to play basketball for them!"

"Taiga, isn't that more reason to come to America? They're a lot more serious here about basketball than Japan, isn't that great? Plus your mother and I would like to have you living with us again."

"But, dad! I have a friend I can't leave…" Kagami trailed off at the end. He knew America was on a whole different level when it came to basketball, but he couldn't imagine leaving Aomine even for that.

"It's not like you won't be in Japan ever again! I'm sure you'll see your friend again, your mother and I are already getting ready for you to move here, we think it's best for you to be here with us."

Kagami didn't know what to say, he felt on the verge of tears but he wasn't sure why, he was so indifferent about going to America when his parents first went. He had friends back then too, but why is the idea of him leaving upsetting him so much now? All he could think of was his promise of going to Teikou with Aomine and finally being on an official team. Before he knew it he couldn't keep his tears back.

"…Taiga? Are you alright?" His dad didn't seem to take him too seriously when Kagami rebelled against the idea, but now he sounded a bit concerned.

"… I don't want to leave Japan, dad. I have to go to Teikou with Aomine…" he said through sobs.

Kagami heard his dad sigh over the receiver and there was silence for what seemed like an eternity until he spoke up again. "Taiga, I understand you've made some really good friends since moving in with your aunt and uncle and that makes me happy. But your mother and I really miss you as well. We're your parents and we haven't gotten to see you since we've moved. You understand, right Taiga?"

Kagami didn't want to admit it but it was true. They were his parents and honestly there were a lot of days he missed them as well. When they first left he called them almost every day. This just made him more conflicted and was unsure how to respond until his dad spoke up again.

"How about this, Taiga: you come here for your middle school education and if you really, really want to return to Japan by the time high school starts, I'll allow you to go back. Deal? You'll be here for three years that way."

"That's so long…" Kagami said quietly.

"I know, Taiga, but I think you can do it, and you'll be able to go back after that if you want. I think this is the best way to do this since neither me nor your mother can afford to move back to Japan as long as I have this job."

Kagami was silent for a while, "…Alright." He still didn't want to go but it's not like he could defy his parents. He should feel happy about being able to come back to Japan for high school but he still was upset about having to leave.

"Thank you, Taiga. I know that you're really reluctant to come, but we think you should come to America. At least for a little while. We'll even fully support your basketball hobby as long as you're here. And… how about this; since this must be a lot for you to handle right now, we'll let you go to Japan for a while during your summer vacations. Then you won't be away from your friends for a full three years, how does that sound?"

Kagami perked up a bit, "R-Really? I can?"

His father heard the excitement in his voice, "Yes, I feel little bad about dropping this on you suddenly, especially since you've made such good friends. We'll arrange it with your aunt and uncle so that you can stay with them when you visit."

Kagami felt a little bit of relief. He was still upset about leaving but at least he could still see Aomine for a few weeks out of the year. "Thank you, dad."

His dad talked to him for a little while longer just to make sure Kagami was alright and then the phone got handed over to his aunt to explain the new situation of Kagami coming over for summers (which she happily agreed to).

"Now how do I tell Aomine…?" Kagami sighed as he got back into his room.

* * *

"So what did you want to talk about?"

Aomine was sitting in Kagami's room after school because of some important news Kagami had to tell him. Some pretty serious news, it looked like.

"I… I don't want to beat around the bush so I'm just going to say it… I'm moving after the summer is over…" Kagami avoided Aomine's eye contact.

"HUH!?" Aomine shouted standing up. "W-Where!?"

"America… my parents want me to go to middle school there."

"But why?" Aomine looked flustered, as Kagami expected.

"Well, they _are_ my parents and they want me to start living with them again and they can't come back to Japan… But it'll only be for a few years! They said I could come back for high school if I want." Kagami tried to lessen the impact of the sudden news.

"… But what if you don't want to come back…? What about Teikou…" Aomine said quietly.

"Why wouldn't I want to come back!? I can't leave you…" Kagami trailed off and blushed. That was a little more embarrassing than he thought it would sound. "A-And you should still go to Teikou," he tried to play it off.

"But I wanted to go with you…" Now it was Aomine's turn to blush. "I-I mean we make a really good team!"

"You should… no you have to go to Teikou. You have to get better because I'm going to be playing basketball in America, and you'll want to be able to still beat me when I come for next summer, right?"

"Next summer?" Aomine looked up.

"Yeah, I'll be able to come back every summer. So it's not like we won't see each other for three whole years," Kagami smiled trying to cheer up his friend.

Aomine was quiet for a second and then gave a small grin. "I'll still be able to beat you, Bakagami." He sneered.

"Ba-Baka!?" Kagami said flustered. "You're the idiot! A… Ahomine!"

"Huh!?" Aomine wasn't expecting that comeback and soon they were both laughing.

After the laughter subsided Aomine spoke again. "You have to promise to come back every summer, okay? And you have to stay in contact or I'll get really mad. Gosh, I dunno how we're going to tell Satsuki, she'll probably cry."

"Haha, she'll be alright, she's tougher than she looks. And of course I'll text you all the time, because I want to know how Teikou is."

"And you definitely have to tell me how the basketball in America is. I'm kinda jealous." Aomine gave a small laugh.  
The room was quite for a while.

"… I'll really miss you, though," Aomine said, turning away with a shade of red covering his ears. "Momoi was my only real best friend but then I met you and, well, I dunno…" he scratched his head in frustration trying to find the right words. "We became friends so fast it was as if we knew each other for as long as I've known her, you know? It's going to be weird not having you around…" his face was bright red by now, half buried in his arms.

"Mm, same here. I'll miss you too," Kagami said with a smile. "I feel like we've been friends forever, well, we'll always be friends!"

Aomine looked up to see Kagami smiling wide and something in his chest fluttered and his heart beat quickened. "Of course!" Aomine said trying to ignore the weird feeling he got at that moment. "And we have the rest of the summer to hang out."

After leaving Kagami's house, Aomine walked home and noticed he got a new text message once he got back to his room.

"Let's play as much basketball as we can this summer!"

Aomine smiled and replied with an "Of course! I'll beat you every time, though." and pressed send. Lying on his bed he recalled the feeling he had while at Kagami's house. He never really felt anything like that before and it was really weird.

"What the hell was that…?"


	3. Chapter 3

Kagami and Aomine had spent their summer together virtually attached to the hip as promised. Basketball, cicadas, crayfish, sleepovers; they did it all. They even came to naturally call each by their first names (finally) since Aomine called Momoi by her first and figured he could do the same for Kagami. Kagami even got to calling Momoi by her first name and she his. She handled the news of Kagami moving fairly well although a few tears were shed, she told him he absolutely must come back for summers or she'll never forgive him.

It was the last festival of the summer; Kagami and Aomine were waiting to meet up with Momoi.

"She's late of course! I don't understand why girls have to take so long to get ready…" Aomine grumbled eager to get on with the festivities.

"She's just excited, and I'm sure putting her yukata on takes some work." Kagami said trying to subdue the anxious Aomine.

They both were wearing yutaka as well but they weren't as elaborate as the women's ones they saw at the festival. Both Kagami and Aomine struggled with putting their obi on until Aomine's mother came to help.

"Oh, there she is—Uwooh!" Kagami suddenly shouted in surprise.

"Satsuki!?" Aomine said equally surprised.

Momoi came trotting up to them with a bright red yukata with an elaborate flower pattern trimmed with pink and white. Her pink hair was half up and styled in slight curls and parted to the side. She had just the right amount of makeup to where it seemed almost natural. In other words – she just looked extremely beautiful and the two boys couldn't believe their eyes.

"Sorry, you guys! My mom insisted on styling my hair so it took longer than I thought it would."

"Satsuki! You look like a princess!" Kagami said without much thought as to how loud and how embarrassing that was to shout in an area filled with people.

Momoi blushed almost as red as her yukata. "T-Taiga! You're exaggerating…" she looked away flustered.

"It's true though, you really do look pretty," Aomine agreed with a smile.

Momoi couldn't have gotten redder but decided to play it off. "Well, if I am a princess then you two are my princes, so you should buy me some takoyaki!" she said swiftly walking past them towards the festival.

Both of the boys 'tsked' almost unanimously and Momoi giggled to herself.

* * *

The three of them played almost every game and bought almost every food their allowances could afford during the night. Of course, Kagami with his large appetite bought the most food and enjoyed every bite. The night was coming to a close and the fireworks were starting soon. Momoi had ended up running into a group of her friends from school that asked if she wanted to watch the fireworks with them, which left Kagami and Aomine to themselves.

"Che, she ditched us even though you're leaving so soon!" Aomine complained as they walked to find a good spot to view the fireworks. Just saying those words out loud made Aomine a little upset that his best friend was going to be moving far away.

"It's alright, she spent pretty much the whole festival with us so it's fine that she just watches the fireworks with her other friends. She looks really pretty tonight though, doesn't she?"

This had to be about the 3rd time Kagami has said that, and while Aomine agrees, he can't help but feel a little jealous that Kagami seemed to be entranced by Momoi. And why exactly he felt jealous, he couldn't really figure it out himself. And it was kind of annoying.

"… Do you like Satsuki or something?" Aomine mumbled, wondering if he'd regret asking that.

"Ah… eh?" N-No!" Kagami awkwardly answered moving his hand side to side.

"That suspicious answer means you're lying."

"I'm not! Really, I don't feel that way about her!"

"Liar."

"I'm definitely not lying!" Kagami was getting frustrated now. "How about you then? How do you feel about Satsuki?" He made an effort to push the conversation away from himself.

"Hah? What are you ,crazy? Satsuki and I are basically like brother and sister! That's gross!" Aomine shouted in his defense.

"Well, that's pretty much how I feel about her too! She's more like a sister or a cousin or something…" Kagami trailed off. "I just thought she looked pretty because she's sort of a tomboy, so it was nice to see her looking so different…"

Aomine sighed. "Then how do you feel about me?" the words came out of his mouth before he even realized what he was saying. ' _Dammit that just sounds way too weird_ ' he thought to himself instantly regretting that he didn't think before he spoke.

"Huh? You're my best friend, obviously!" Kagami answered right away like that was the stupidest question in the world, apparently not catching on to the awkward timing of the question.

"So, not like a brother?" Aomine asked again like he was on auto-pilot.

"Hmm," Kagami took the time to think about this one, "Well, for some reason 'brother' doesn't really come to mind. We're really close and all that but our relationship feels a bit different from 'brothers' you know? I think 'best friends' is closer. Although, if you were my brother that would be awesome."

Aomine liked this answer, actually. Maybe it was because brothers didn't really have a choice in whether they were tied together or not, but friends chose who they were friends with and so it seemed a lot more special that he was the 'best' one.

"Same here." Aomine said finally plopping down in an area of grass, "You're my best friend."

Kagami sat down next to him, "Good. And don't ask if I 'like' Satsuki again, that was weird," he nudged his friend in the side.

"Haha, sorry, I was just making sure."

"Making sure?"

"Ah… never mind…" Aomine said and was glad that Kagami didn't push further, because honestly even he didn't know what he was making sure of.

The fireworks finally started after a few minutes and soon the night sky was filled with beautiful flowers made of light and color. Fireworks during the summer really were the best. Everyone 'ooed' and 'ahhed' at all the different shapes the fireworks took.

"Oh! Did you see that one, Daiki? I've never seen one like that before!" Kagami was a little easily excitable over them but it was pretty amusing, almost as amusing as the fireworks themselves.

Aomine watched him for maybe 20 seconds, ignoring everything else completely. Kagami's face lit up almost as bright as the sky was now and the smile on his face was huge. Soon, Aomine felt it again. The fluttering in his chest and quickened heartbeat. It felt funny and again, he wasn't sure what to think of it, but soon he was snapped back to reality.

"Oi, Daiki, what the heck are you looking at?" Kagami had looked away from the show. "You aren't watching the fireworks!" he said pointing up with a slight furrow of his brow.

"Oh, sorry, I just thought it was funny how you were acting like a little kid just now," Aomine played it off and gave a laugh.

"Shut up! Fireworks are exciting no matter what age!" he contested going back to gawking at the sky. Aomine followed suit and tried to put the weird feeling to the back of his mind.

* * *

After the festival they managed to meet back up with Momoi and headed home. Both of them insisted on walking her home since her parents left early before the fireworks started and they promised to get her back. She thanked and hugged both of them before going through her front door. Aomine insisted on walking Kagami home and Kagami argued that he was 'not a girl like Satsuki' and could get home fine without him, but after Aomine said he just wanted to talk some before separating he quietly gave in. Aomine used the excuse of talking about his first visit to check out the Teikou gym, but really it was just an excuse so that he could spend whatever time he had with Kagami before he had to leave. Kagami eagerly listened with excitement and promised to tell him all about his middle school basketball experience when he got to America. Aomine was sad that they wouldn't be sharing the same experience but smiled nonetheless.

Arriving at Kagami's house, he was ready to say goodnight to his friend and head in but was stopped by a tug at his sleeve.

"What's wrong?" Kagami asked seeing his friend with a solemn face.

Aomine said nothing but kept his grip on the sleeve and soon was squeezing Kagami into a hug so hard it almost hurt.

"W-What the hell, you're squeezing me too hard!" Kagami strained to say but soon felt the grip ease up. "What is wrong with you…?" he was a little confused by Aomine's sudden action and he still had not said a word, but Kagami's still reached his arms around Aomine's back to return the hug.

"I'm just going to miss you… dammit… you'll be gone in a week." Aomine mumbled into Kagami's shoulder.

"Hah… Jeeze, I'm gonna miss you too, you know? But there's still a week, and I'll be back…" Kagami tried his best to comfort his friend. "And what's with the hugging me all of a sudden? You rarely do that."

"I just… wanted to hug you, idiot… Why do I gotta have a reason…" Aomine could feel tears welling up in his eyes but managed to win the fight of holding them back.

Kagami was now the one squeezing Aomine, "I promise I'll be back, and next summer we'll see fireworks together again."

Aomine's chest was burning up and his heart was once again beating faster and faster. It was strange and weird and he wasn't sure if he liked it and slowly pulled away from Kagami.

"Yeah, I'll be waiting." He said with a smile and Kagami returned the smile with a big, cheesy grin. They bid each other farewell and Aomine walked home by himself, bursting into tears half-way there but drying them off before he entered his front door.

Aomine had never had such a good friend as Kagami. Or maybe it was that he never had a friend quite like Kagami. It hurt to see him go and everything was better when they were together. He tried comparing their relationship with his and Momoi's but they weren't quite the same. Yes, Aomine would be upset to see Momoi be in the same situation as Kagami but if she promised to come visit every year and move back after three years, he'd probably be totally fine with that. So why was the idea of that happening with Kagami so hard to handle? It frustrated him so much and he couldn't figure out why.

That night, Aomine had difficulty sleeping.


	4. Chapter 4

It had been three weeks since Kagami moved to America and one week since school started at Teikou. Kagami was starting his new school the upcoming Monday and he was very nervous about starting school in a new country, especially not knowing the language very well. Aomine signed up right away for the basketball team and currently they were going through try-outs, but it was obvious that he was one of the best students there. He was excited to see that there were quite a few others who seemed to be just as good as him.

After an exhausting practice, Aomine finally got around to checking his phone and saw that he had a message from Kagami. As if on reflex, he smiled and read the message. The two had texted each other virtually every day with a few phone calls here and there. They always talked for a long time when one of them called the other, to the point that someone's parents would be scolding them to get off the phone and go to bed. Mostly it was Kagami since the time difference was so inconvenient for him.

Since it was Friday, Aomine figured it'd be ok to talk on the phone late with Kagami so he decided to call in the morning when it'd be a decent time for both of them. Kagami was nervous about his first day of school and thought a conversation with his best friend would calm him down a bit.

* * *

A few weeks later, things seemed to be going well. Kagami and Aomine still talked often but were busy with their basketball practice and games. Aomine had started to get along well with his new teammates and so had Kagami.

'I met this guy from Japan who also loves basketball! We go to different schools but he's really good at street ball, you'd probably get along with him.' Kagami texted Aomine one day.

Aomine couldn't help but feel a tad bit jealous but he was sort of in the same situation.

'He sounds cool already! Yeah, I'm getting along with my teammates pretty well, there's this one kid who has this hidden talent that no one would've ever expected him to have. He isn't on the first string, but I hope he can be one day.'

Little did Aomine know, Kagami was also feeling a pang of jealousy, but smiled knowing that Aomine was having a good time.

'I'm glad! I'd like to see him play sometime then. Hey, call me this weekend, ok? (＾_＾)'

Aomine couldn't help but smile, of course he would call. They made sure to call each other at least once a week and it was usually on the weekend when they had time to talk for hours. Distance didn't seem to affect their friendship at all. It was just a bummer that they couldn't actually hang out together. Both of them were already excited for their first full season of middle school basketball, but also already started planning stuff to do when summer came around. It was something to look forward to for to when the basketball season ended.

* * *

"Oh yeah! And then Tatsuya…"

Tatsuya again, huh? Kagami's closest friend he had made in America seemed to start popping up more and more in their phone conversations. But Aomine really had no room to talk, ever since Tetsu got into the first string and continued to surprise both his opponents and teammates he had told Kagami many stories. It was amusing that even their first names were so similar. Tatsuya, Tetsuya… Aomine had to laugh to himself.

"So how was your game last week?" Kagami's question snapped Aomine's wandering brain back to reality.

"Ahh, yeah we won. Tetsu didn't play until the last quarter but he secured us an easy win."

"Oh, you really like Tetsu, huh? He seems like a pretty cool guy, even though it's weird - I wouldn't expect someone to have as little presence as you claim he does." Kagami gave a small laugh.

"He's a good guy, sounds like you really like hanging out with Tatsuya too…?"

"Oh, aha, yeah, I like my teammates but he's a lot more fun to hang out with."

Here comes the jealous feeling again. There was a bit of an awkward silence and then Kagami spoke up again.

"…But you know, Daiki, you'll always be my best friend." Kagami said in a more serious tone. "Tatsuya is my good friend but honestly, half of the time I'm thinking, 'Daiki would have so much fun if he were playing with us,' or 'I wonder if Daiki knows this technique?'."

Aomine couldn't help but slightly grin. And Kagami was feeling a little embarrassed, but all of it was true.

"Yeah, yeah, of course we're best friends! Don't forget it; we'll make up for lost time during the summer. You can even meet Tetsu."

"I'm looking forward to it." Kagami sounded happy but tired. Aomine knew that it was getting pretty late over there so they usually hung up when Kagami started to feel as if he was going to doze off.

"Are you falling asleep?" Aomine asked after a few moments of silence.

"Hmm? Nah…" he was obviously falling asleep.

"Yeah you are."

"…Nope…"

And before Aomine knew it, Kagami was fast asleep, breathing deeply into the phone. Aomine just listened to his breathing for a few moments.

"Taiga," he whispered making sure he was actually asleep. There was no response. Aomine lay back on his bed, keeping the phone by his ear. "Taigaaa," he said a little louder, still with no reply from the other end.

"I'm gonna hang up, ok?" Aomine paused for a moment, "Goodnight, Taiga …I really miss you," Aomine said barely above a whisper, "Really…" Aomine turned to bury his face in his pillow before hanging up. He tossed his phone aside and moved his arms to wrap around his pillow. "This is frustrating…"


	5. Chapter 5

Kagami was so nervous and excited he almost felt a little sick. But all of this was worth it; he'd be back in Japan in a matter of hours. The plane ride was long and arduous but he just had to remind himself of what was waiting for him. His aunt and uncle who were going to pick him up from the airport, the friends he had made at his old school, the kids he played basketball with, Momoi, and most of all: Aomine. He smiled to himself thinking about finally being able to hang out with his best friend again, and it helped a little with getting through the cramped flight.

After a warm greeting from his aunt and uncle at the airport they headed to the house. They seemed happy to have him back and honestly, Kagami was glad to see them too since he had started to get along quite well with them while he lived in their house. Kagami was tired but he sent Aomine a text right away after landing but hadn't gotten a reply back. He was a little irked since Aomine _knew_ Kagami would be coming in today but he tried not to let it bother him too much.

After getting out of the car and having his uncle help him with his bags he walked up to the front door when, surprisingly, the door opened up itself.

"Taiga!" A shrill voice rang out from the doorway and a pink blur had flung itself towards him, almost knocking him over.

"AH! S-Satsuki!?" Kagami was a little out of it from the long flight but who else could this voice and brilliant pink hair belong to? Furthermore, what was she doing here?

"We missed you, Taiga! I'm so glad to see you back!" she squeezed him even harder to the point it was painful but Kagami didn't attempt to pull her off. His aunt and uncle laughed, they must've obviously been in on this since she was waiting at the house.

"I-I missed you too, of course. You're squeezing me pretty tight though… Wait, 'we'?"

Managing to look past the doorway and into the house, Kagami saw the blue-haired boy who had become his best friend. Kagami's heart felt like it had shot up to his throat when his eyes settled on the smiling Aomine who was only a few feet away from him. Momoi's grip had lessened as she knew what Kagami would be doing next, and he walked into the house towards Aomine, probably with an extremely goofy smile on his face. Without a word he embraced Aomine into a bear hug which his best friend also gave in return. He looked older but not too much different, but man, had he gotten taller. Kagami had gotten taller too but it was surreal to see his friend looking a little more mature. But nothing felt like it had changed, he still felt like it was the same Aomine. He missed him so much, so very much. He couldn't believe how different his reunion felt with Aomine was than with his aunt, uncle, and Momoi but he didn't care. Aomine was right here and he had almost forgotten about everyone that was watching him.

"It's great to see you again…" Aomine said by his ear, still in the embrace of their hug and patting his friend's back.

"Same here, it's good to be back."

Kagami really didn't want to let go but he couldn't keep hugging Aomine forever, so they separated, still with foolish grins on their faces. As Kagami figured, his aunt and uncle were behind this little surprise. They had gotten to know Aomine and Momoi when he lived there since Kagami was always around them. So they invited them over to surprise Kagami with the reunion and dinner after coming back from the airport. ' _So that's why Daiki never got back to me_ ' Kagami thought.

The dinner was delicious and being able to catch up with his two old friends felt so great that he couldn't have been any happier to be back.

* * *

There was the regular hanging out during the summer, both with Momoi and just with the two best friends together by themselves. Although they had been apart for a year, they picked up from where they left off as if they had seen each other just the other day. As Aomine had promised, he introduced this 'Tetsu' Kagami had heard so much about.

"Where is he? He's kind of late…" Aomine mumbled, looking around the basketball court. He and Kagami set up a meeting time to meet with this Tetsu guy. Kagami couldn't see anyone around either and also searched even though he wasn't sure what he even looked like.

"Aomine-kun, I'm right here, you know," a soft-spoken, flat voice came from behind the two friends and both jumped in surprise from the unexpected announcement.

"Jeeze! Tetsu! Don't you have an off-switch for that misdirection of yours or something!?" Aomine said turning around after getting over his shock.

"There is no 'off-switch' this is just how I am, you should know that." The short, light blue-haired boy said plainly. And yeah, he was pretty short. Not so short, per se, when it came to the average kid their age, but it was obvious that Kagami and Aomine towered over him. And Kagami noticed he was pretty scrawny too. This was this awesome basketball player Aomine went on and on about? Kagami was confused. But who knows, he could surprise him.

"Ah, whatever. Anyway, this is my friend I told you about, Kagami Taiga. He's _almost_ as good at basketball as me. Almost." Aomine smirked as Kagami gave him a jab to the side.

"It's nice to meet you." Kagami held out his hand.

"Likewise, my name is Kuroko Tetsuya." Kuroko shook the outreached hand.

"Alright, let's play!" Aomine shouted.

* * *

Kagami didn't get it. To put it plainly, Kuroko sucked. For the past half hour, the kid hadn't gotten one basket in, not even close, and he looked like he was already about to pass out. Aomine said that Kuroko's forte was passing but was that it? He could barely play! There were even times that Kagami forgot he was even there.

"Even though you've been practicing a lot, you're still a little weak at shooting, huh? I guess its best for you to focus on passes." Aomine said, bouncing the ball.

"Yes, that is the thing I'm best at so I've just been working on my stamina and passing like Akashi-kun told me to." Kuroko huffed, wiping sweat from his brow.

"How about we take a break and head to Maji Burger?" Aomine suggested.

"I'll take a vanilla shake."

"I never said I'd buy your food!"

"Aomine-kun, will you please buy me a vanilla shake?"

"Tsk…" Aomine clicked his tongue and turned to walk off the court.

' _They seem to get along pretty well_ ,' Kagami thought. He couldn't help but be a little envious over how close they seemed to have gotten in the year they had known each other. Almost like how Kagami and Aomine started off. But Kagami knew it was silly to be a little jealous and that Aomine and he would always consider each other best friends. Besides the confusion of Kuroko's basketball skills, he seemed like a nice guy. A little strange, but nice, and Aomine seemed to like having him as a friend. Aomine turned to look at his two friends before walking out of the court.

"Come on, I'll treat you both."

"Aomine-kun is so generous," Kuroko said, trotting towards Aomine. Kagami followed suit.

Aomine placed his arm around Kagami, "But I'm only getting you two burgers, if I actually treated you to fill your stomach I'd be broke for a year," he joked, patting his back, almost like it was reassurance for Kagami's wavering thoughts a moment ago. Kagami smiled and laughed, knowing that Aomine really would always be there with him and he should've never even considered him being replaced.

* * *

As the summer was coming to an end, Kagami had more chances to hang around Kuroko and he finally started to understand him. He may not be a good shot but he was almost like a secret weapon on the court when it came to duping the opponent with his passes and that his lack of presence was actually to his advantage. They had played a few games with actual teams and that's where his talent showed. Kagami also learned that Kuroko was not as one-dimensional as he initially thought. Kuroko just wasn't the kind of person you would call 'an open book' but once Kagami got to know him he learned that he had quite the personality. Surprisingly, they ended up getting along pretty well, so it wasn't so bad when Kuroko tagged along to hang out with him and Aomine. They even exchanged phone numbers to keep in touch when Kagami is away.

Kagami and Aomine had relatively close birthdays and in previous years they often celebrated by spending the day together. Not much different than usual, just with cake and presents. This year Kagami's aunt and uncle insisted for them to have a joint birthday party because they were both becoming teenagers and Kagami would have to be away for another year. It was a small party with a few close friends including Kuroko and Momoi. It was nice to be surrounded by friends. In fact, the summer as a whole was one of the best times Kagami had in his life. He wasn't sure if it was because he missed being around everyone so much or what, but he was a little sad to know that he had to be leaving again soon.

The first half of the day was the party and the second half, Kagami and Aomine had decided to spend just together playing basketball, catching cicadas, and later that night spending the night at Kagami's while playing video games and goofing off into the wee hours of the night. They both always enjoyed staying up late at each other's houses even if they often got told to be quiet or scolded for being up so late. But since it was for their birthdays and it was summer, Kagami's aunt and uncle said they could stay up as late as they wanted as long as they kept the noise level down.

As their energy levels seemed to be dying out and the sun seemed to be on its way to the horizon, Aomine and Kagami had finally began to start feeling themselves crash.

Setting the game controller down, Kagami let out a big yawn.

"Getting tired?" Aomine asked also putting down his controller.

"Hmm, nah…" Kagami gave a lazy reply.

"Yeah right, like I haven't heard that a million times over the phone with you." Aomine laughed.

"Haha, shut up…" Kagami gave a weak laugh and lay back on his bed they were both sitting on. Aomine lay back as well.

"Well, today was fun. This whole summer was, really." Aomine said staring up at the ceiling.

"Yeah it was. I'm glad I came back." Kagami responded with a yawn.

Aomine looked over at his friend for a few moments. Kagami noticed after a while that he was being stared at and shifted to look over at Aomine.

"What is it?"

"Ah… Nothing…" Aomine looked away awkwardly. These were the only moments Kagami seemed he couldn't figure out what his best friend was thinking. He didn't do it too often, but once in a while he'd catch Aomine with a serious look on his face and would avoid answering any questions as to why. Even on the phone there would be some moments of silence where he would respond in the same way. Kagami never bothered to push the subject because he knew Aomine was stubborn and probably wouldn't get a real answer out of him. It didn't really bother him but he was pretty curious.

"Whatever you say," Kagami shrugged.

"Well, I'm really glad you decided to come back to visit," Aomine said going back to his normal self, turning to his side to face Kagami.

"Of course I did! I promised I would, idiot," Kagami laughed and gave Aomine a light push and raised himself up on his arms.

"You're the idiot! I just wasn't sure you'd feel the same about that decision after a year, you know? Especially with your new friends and that Tatsuya…" Aomine cut himself off and scratched at his head.

"Huh? I get to see Tatsuya all the time, right now I only get to see you whenever I'm here, of course I'd still come. No matter what, you're my best friend." Kagami said with a warm smile.

"Yeah…" Aomine returned a grin in Kagami's direction.

And there it was again, that strange, serious look that Aomine gets almost as if he never notices he does it. Kagami was about to snap him back into reality when Aomine unexpectedly reached out his hand to Kagami's head. Aomine ran his fingers through Kagami's hair down to his neck. Kagami wasn't sure what exactly was happening, Aomine had never done something like this and frankly, he didn't know what to think about it. If it were anyone else he probably would've pushed them off by now, but the fact that it was Aomine didn't really bother him. He wasn't sure what his friend was doing but he didn't exactly hate it. It was actually kind of nice to feel Aomine's warm hand brush through has hair and rub his neck. It was almost relaxing and he started to close his eyes. He then felt a thumb run over the line of his jaw starting from behind his ear. Kagami let out a deep sigh and his heart started to beat faster, but then he thought – ' _shouldn't this be weird?_ ' He realized he wasn't entirely sure why Aomine suddenly started touching him and it was kind of scary that he was enjoying it so much. He wanted more but at the same time wanted it to stop, so finally when the thumb was about to reach his lips, he swatted away the hand and opened his eyes to see his friend a bright shade of red even under his dark complexion.

"S…Sorry! I- I don't know…" Aomine stuttered and looked away while sitting up and trying to cover his red face.

"It's ok! Just forget about it…" Kagami tried to ease the awkwardness surrounding them.

What he really wanted to say was 'what the hell was that!?' but didn't, because he knew his behavior was also strange. He honestly didn't want to smack Aomine's hand away, and only did so because he felt it odd that he wanted him to keep going. Why? What would've happened if Kagami didn't stop him? Where else would Aomine have touched him? Kagami wanted to know the answer to these question, but at the same time that's made him frantic to stop Aomine and defy his curiosity. He was becoming as red as Aomine now.

"Yeah… sorry, I think I'm just tired." Aomine explained away.

"Y-Yeah, don't worry about it, I am too." The atmosphere was still awkward but Kagami gave a nervous laugh to try and dispel it.

Not much else was said between them except for their goodnights as Aomine settled into the futon on the floor and Kagami in his bed. Kagami couldn't get the incident out of his head and he was sure Aomine couldn't either. But both of them eventually fell asleep and after waking up, seemed to have mutually decided that the instance of last night be put in to the back of their heads as something not to worry over.


	6. Chapter 6

Aomine finally realized it: he was in love.

Falling in love for the first time should be something new and exciting. Nerve-wracking at first, but after you've had your first love everything seems different now that you've experienced a new feeling. Aomine was definitely feeling that, but he was bothered by it more than anything – because Aomine was in love with his best friend.

All the times he wondered what made his relationship with Kagami feel so different than with everyone else made sense now. Aomine finally realized it when he reunited with his friend when Kagami came back to visit Japan after living overseas in America for a year. He always knew that what he felt for Kagami was something more intimate than his other friends. There were times when they were together and Aomine got a strange feeling when he was with Kagami that he could never explain. Was he in love with him even that far back and at that young? There were times when Aomine just wanted to reach out and touch Kagami other than patting his back or horsing around, but he stopped himself whenever he felt this way. But during this summer, his rationality seemed to have slipped away and before he knew it, his hand was caressing his best friend's face. He probably wouldn't have stopped, and God knows what else he would've done if Kagami hadn't pushed his hand away.

It was beyond awkward and a little dangerous and Aomine knew it right away. He felt that if he couldn't hold himself back that one time, what would happen the next time? At first, he felt that maybe Kagami could've actually liked it since he didn't shove Aomine's hand off right away, but he quickly dismissed that to himself as a delay in reaction time – especially since they were both tired that night. Aomine had convinced himself in his head that Kagami definitely didn't feel the same way as he did. He felt that Kagami just saw him as a best friend and didn't want something like that ruin their relationship. It was also difficult because he couldn't help but acknowledge they were both male. Aomine was confused about this since most people fell in love with the opposite gender; he wondered what it meant if he had feelings for his similarly male friend. This just ended up making Aomine even more bothered by his first time experience of love.

When Kagami had to return to America, their departure was as emotional as their first. Aomine struggled to fight back his tears but had an even harder time preventing himself from grabbing his friend and spilling his feelings out, hoping that it would stop him from leaving him again. In the end, Aomine did not burst into tears nor did he make a scene of a confession of love. Instead, he bid his friend farewell, until next time.

* * *

"Aomine-kun, what's wrong?" A familiar voice came from beside Aomine who seemed to be in a daze.

"Oh? Tetsu… Nothing, just thinking about stupid stuff… It's not important…" Aomine dismissed. He had gotten pretty accustomed to Kuroko coming out of nowhere.

"Something seems to be bothering you, though," Kuroko pressed.

"No, it's really nothing…"

"Kurokocchi! Aominecchi!" A cheerful voice came from the locker room doorway.

"Kise-kun, you're too loud," Kuroko said bluntly.

"Aww Kurokocchi… I was just coming in to say that practice was starting soon…" the blonde-haired teen pouted.

Kise Ryouta had joined the Teikou basketball team during his second year. He was a newbie but picked up on the game of basketball incredibly fast and not only that – he was good at it. He was good looking and also managed to nab a modeling gig even at his young age. He seemed like the perfect role-model but he was often made the butt of jokes amongst his teammates. Mostly in good jest, though, as he quickly became an essential and important part of the team and they recognized his talent.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming…" Aomine got up lazily.

Things for the Teikou basketball team seemed to be going good. Too good. Every game they played, they won, and by a large margin. It was almost getting to the point that little to no effort had to be put in to win games. It was like the other team just gave up halfway and this was starting to make basketball… boring. Aomine didn't want to admit it but it was true. It was troubling and frankly, annoying, to be playing against teams that seemed to have just given up. It made him lose motivation for practicing and playing, and this was the last thing Aomine needed in his life right now. He was also stressing out over how to save his friendship. He had not talked to Kagami nearly as much as he used to and it wasn't necessarily because he wanted it that way. Aomine tried many times to forget about his feelings for Kagami but it just wasn't that simple. Every time he talked with his friend he felt guilty for harboring such feelings for him, and was scared that one day Kagami would find out. So his only solution was to cut down the amount of times they talked, he figured that maybe this would also be a way to help him over this predicament; but to no avail, his feelings were as strong as ever.

Aomine sighed again walking out to the court for practice. Kuroko gave him a concerned look, but didn't say a word.

* * *

Kagami got around to checking his messages after waking up and seeing that there was one from Kuroko. He felt a little a guilty since he was hoping it was from Aomine, but Kuroko had been the one telling him things about Aomine lately since the jerk seemed to have greatly lessened the amount of times he contacted him for no apparent reason. Whenever they did talk to each other it was usually short or Aomine said that he was 'busy' and had to go. Checking the text message, Kagami tsked after thinking of all the times he's gotten blown off the past couple months.

'Aomine-kun seems more and more out of it lately. He doesn't seem to be in a good mood. I'll try to see what's wrong.'

Kuroko was a really good friend to both Aomine and Kagami. It sounded a little silly, but Kagami was glad that Kuroko was around to help Aomine out. Of course, Momoi was there too, but Kuroko could play a role as a friend in his own way that Momoi couldn't. She was more for keeping him in check; Kuroko was more of a consultant.

After texting Kuroko his answer of thanks, he noticed he also had a message from Momoi.

'Taiga! What should I do! I found a gross magazine in Dai-chan's room! All of these half-naked women were in it, eww! ( °Д°）What if he's become a pervert!?'

Kagami froze and soon felt his face getting red. What a private thing to tell him! It was a little embarrassing; he didn't want to know what Aomine did in his spare time! Sure plenty of kids their age were starting to look at stuff like that, but it wasn't any of his business.

'Just leave it alone! Or if it bothers you, throw it away! I don't care about that stuff!' he texted back, tossing his phone aside.

So Aomine was into that stuff? It shouldn't be surprising but Kagami never really thought about it. Sure he had seen those magazines before but he wasn't too terribly interested. Of course he could acknowledge good-looking women if he saw them, but he really only concerned himself with basketball. But he guessed that Aomine could find other interests like that, supposedly. Honestly Kagami wished Momoi hadn't told him, it was strange knowing something that private about his best friend. Those kinds of magazines don't serve many other purposes then…

  
Kagami shook his head and picked up the remote to the television. No, he wasn't going to think about that. He just needed to clear his mind.

* * *

Aomine had started to accumulate… an interesting collection – photobooks of models.

It started off as a curiosity to whether he could have any interest in women and well, yeah, he did. The models were beautiful… hot… and Aomine realized that boobs were some of the greatest things ever. This came as somewhat of a relief to him; maybe he could actually get over his feelings for Kagami and they could go back to being best friends again without anything awkward happening like last time.

Yes, this would work. These beautiful models would be the key to going back to normal… or not. Boobs were great, fantastic even – but Kagami was better. He could look at these gorgeous models all day and their well-endowed breasts but at the end of the day, he still went to bed thinking about Kagami and longing to touch him again, wishing to see him again. Thinking about Kagami was better than all of those models any day... Thinking _too_ much about him was a little dangerous.

Nothing was going to work, it seemed. Maybe he should just give in and accept the fact that he was head-over-heels for his male best friend. Honestly, the fact that Kagami was also male didn't bother him too much anymore; what bothered him the most was their relationship. Kagami most likely didn't feel the same way, so having romantic feelings towards him would surely just lead to complication in their friendship. He wanted to get over his feelings for him because he didn't want to lose him. But being close with him was painful because he knew he could never cross that line. It was a terribly stressful thing that he didn't need in his life right now, and all he had was to hope that this childhood, first love would eventually fade away.

* * *

Kagami had finally gotten Aomine to talk to him on the phone, which was good because he was concerned. Kuroko had a talk with Aomine and had informed Kagami that the reason Aomine seemed so down was because he was losing his passion for basketball. Kagami wouldn't stand for it – basketball was the thing that brought them together and something that kept their friendship strong. Hell, he probably wouldn't have even gotten into basketball if it wasn't for Aomine. He needed to confront his friend to see just exactly why he was behaving this way.

"Today you can't hang up after like, five minutes, ok?" Kagami said, knowing that was how their conversations seemed to have gone lately.

Aomine sighed over the other end of the receiver, "Yeah, I won't, sorry, it's just that I've been busy lately."

"You always say that…" Kagami mumbled. "Anyway, I just really want to talk, ok? I've been talking to Kuroko lately and he said you've been down, is everything ok?" Kagami wanted to give Aomine a chance to tell him exactly what's going on.

"I've just been having some down days I guess…" Aomine said nonchalantly.

"Liar…"

"What? It's true."

"That's not what Kuroko said," Kagami furrowed his brow.

Aomine paused for a moment, "… What did Tetsu say?"

"He said you weren't enjoying basketball anymore!" Kagami had to keep himself from shouting and getting upset.

"Dammit, if I knew he was going to blab to you I would've told him to keep quiet…" Kagami could hear Aomine tsk on the other side of the receiver.

"Why the hell should that be something that I shouldn't know!?" Kagami was confused as to why Aomine chose to keep something like this from him.

Their contact had been sparse for months, was he feeling like this the whole time and didn't let Kagami know anything about it? Why did he tell Kuroko so easily but not him? Hell, why did he have to hear it from Kuroko in the first place? It seemed like something silly to be upset over, but this was something that was very important in both of their lives, and if it was making Aomine act the way he was, it was enough to bring up concern.

"I just didn't want you to know, ok?" Aomine sounded flustered.

"Why not!?" Kagami's voice rose louder.

"Because I didn't want you to get upset like you are right now!" Aomine's voice also got louder.

"A lot of good that did, huh?" Kagami shouted back.

There was a minute or two of silence where the two had a chance to calm down a bit, and then Aomine spoke up.

"Look, I'm just going through a lot of things right now, ok? I didn't really know how to tell you that basketball was getting boring for me…"

"That's _why_ you tell me these things, I'm your best friend and I can help you through stuff like this. You should've just told me, I wouldn't have gotten mad, idiot…" Kagami had calmed down, Aomine wasn't perfect and he really couldn't stay mad at him, because just by the tone of his voice it seemed like Aomine was having a tough time after all.

Aomine gave a small laugh, "Yeah, now I know. I've learned my lesson."

A small smile spread across Kagami's face, "Good, so tell me, what exactly is wrong?"

Aomine explained that basketball started to get boring because of how easy games were to win anymore, and all the instances where opponents seemed to have given up. He gave a deep sigh after telling Kagami all that was on his mind – about basketball, that is.

"…I wish I was there," Kagami said quietly.

"Huh?" that was an unexpected answer to all of that information Aomine just rambled off.

"Well, if I were there I would make sure you didn't feel that way," Kagami blushed a bit, even he could admit that was a bit embarrassing to say.

"Haha, what the hell, how would you do something like that?" Aomine smiled.

"I dunno! I would just… do it… somehow…" Kagami trailed off. And there was that weird silence he had experienced so many times on the phone with Aomine. Well, he hadn't for a while since their phone conversations were so short lately, but nevertheless, this was a familiar situation.

"You're really great, Taiga," Aomine said suddenly.

"W-What do you mean by that?" Kagami asked, a little shocked.

"You just are, you make me happy… " Aomine said quietly.

"Huh…?" Kagami could feel his ears getting red, "You're being so embarrassing…" he gave a nervous laugh.

"…You know, I really l-" Aomine suddenly cut off.

"What? You really what?" Aomine was behaving stranger than usual and Kagami wasn't sure why, he thought they got over Aomine's funk with their talk earlier.

"N-Nothing!" Aomine shouted loudly, surprising Kagami, "I… I'm not too sure about when I can call you next," Aomine stumbled over his words.

"Why…?" Kagami was far from understanding anything that was going on at this point with this sudden announcement.

"I'm just going to be busier than usual, sorry, and I have to go now, sorry again…" Aomine sounded rushed.

"What? Daiki?"

"Bye!" and right after that the call ended.

Kagami just froze and held his phone, staring at the 'end call' screen. What the hell just happened? Their conversation seemed to be going normal until Aomine started saying weird stuff, and then suddenly he had to go? It seemed that all was not settled with Aomine's strange behavior. And what was he going to say before he just cut himself off?

"Dammit, what the hell is wrong with him? It looks like I'll still have to depend on Kuroko to tell me things…" Kagami said to himself and sighed. Kagami thought maybe it was a little much to have Kuroko and sometimes Momoi tell him things, but this was important because it was his best friend. His best friend that he cared about more than most people, his best friend that he'd do anything for…


	7. Chapter 7

Kagami was spending his free time as usual: playing at the public basketball court. He had only been there a short while until he heard someone call his name.

"Hey, Taiga!"

Himuro Tatsuya was Kagami's closest friend in America. He met him at this court often, and although they didn't go to the same school, they spent a lot of their time together. Himuro was very attractive for a guy and even Kagami could admit that. His complexion was flawless with a small beauty mark under his right eye and his hair was straight and jet black. He seemed a little stand-off-ish but his personality was kind. But when it came to basketball, he was fierce to say the least.

"Hey, I was waiting for you," Kagami said walking up to Himuro with a basketball in his hand.

"Sorry, Alex held me up," he said with a grin.

"What was that, little shrimp?" A tall, blonde woman came up behind Himuro and ruffled his hair.

Alex Garcia was something of a coach to Himuro and Kagami. She was not only beautiful, but an amazing basketball player who even got to play in the WNBA. Since a condition left her unable to continue to play professionally, she frequented the court the kids hung out at. After seeing her playing skills, they begged her to coach them. She was reluctant at first, but she now enjoys the time she spends teaching them.

Kagami enjoyed spending time with them, especially lately. He needed to get his mind on other things besides Aomine's strange behavior. It worried him but it seemed like there was nothing he could really do to fix it, so he decided it was maybe for the best to let Aomine cool his head off for a while. Besides, the other day on the phone he said he wouldn't be able to call for a while anyway.

* * *

"Are you okay?" Himuro asked after scoring another basket, "You don't really seem like yourself today."

"Oh, it's nothing really, something's just bothering me," Kagami explained.

"Does it have to do with your friend Daiki?"

"…How did you know?"

"If you aren't thinking about basketball, you're thinking about him," Himuro laughed.

"Th-That's not true!" Kagami blushed taking the ball away from Himuro who continued to laugh.

"But I was right this time. What is it about him that's bothering you, though? It must be serious if it's messing up your game."

"He's just acting strange that's all," Kagami dribbled the ball in place, "I don't know what to do and it's really bothering me."

"What's up, Taiga? You look like you just broke up with your girlfriend," Alex said, returning from filling up the water bottles.

"Huh!? I don't have a girlfriend!" Kagami shouted with a red face.

"Hmm, could've fooled me with that kind of look on your face," she smiled handing him the water bottle which he quickly snatched from her hand.

"I'm just having issues with a friend, that's all," he grumbled, taking a swig from the bottle.

"Ohhh, a _friend_ huh?" Alex continued to joke, emphasizing the word 'friend'. Even Himuro was starting to laugh.

"I'm serious! It's just my friend in Japan! Quit it, Alex…" Kagami grumbled and narrowed his eyes at her.

"That is _Ms._ Alex, to you," she said, bopping him on the head, Kagami giving a grumble of complaint. "Anyway, why does this 'friend' have you so worked up?"

"They're just acting really strange and half of the time they don't answer my calls or texts. And when they do they usually don't talk very long. I have a feeling it's because of something I did but I don't know what it is and it's frustrating me…"

"Hmm, are you sure you aren't in love? You sound pretty heartbroken to me," Alex continued to tease.

"Haha, Alex, it's his friend Daiki he's always talking about," Himuro added.

"Ohh! That Daiki kid you never shut up about! So it is love!" She guffawed slamming a hand against Kagami's back. Himuro tried hard to hold back his laughter but it didn't really work out so well.

"Sh-Shut up I don't…! About him…!" Kagami was bright red by now. He knew Alex was just joking about it but he couldn't help but become really embarrassed about her saying stuff like that. He wasn't _in love_ with Aomine! He was his best friend, and a guy at that. Yeah… it definitely wasn't love…

It irked Kagami. Really irked him, and he wasn't sure why it bothered him so much.

"Whatever, this is the last time I tell you guys what's bothering me," Kagami stormed off towards the exit off the court.

"Oh, come on, Taiga! We were just playing with you to cheer you up! Come back and talk to big sis Alex!" she shouted after him.

Kagami heard running footsteps behind him and saw that Himuro was now beside him.

"Hey, Taiga, I'm really sorry, I probably shouldn't have egged Alex on," he said in an apologetic tone.

Kagami was really annoyed and kind of embarrassed that he stormed off like that, but he wasn't necessarily angry.

"Taiga, I know how you feel."

"Huh?"

"I mean… I know you probably feel frustrated with the situation but I'm sure everything will work out alright. Your friend probably just needs some time to think over whatever is bothering him, that's all," Himuro put on a reassuring smile.

"Thanks," Kagami grinned.

"Also, there's something important I need to talk to you about too…" Himuro said, the grin on his face fading.

* * *

Kagami came home and went straight to his room. He slammed his body onto his bed and heaved a sigh, then dug into his pocket pulling out a ring.

Himuro told Kagami that after the summer was over he was moving to Japan. He was from there just like Kagami so it made sense. He was a little upset that he'd be spending his remaining year in America without Himuro around but he figured it was only a year, and then he'd be back in Japan as well.

Himuro also gave him a ring to remember each other by as he also had a matching one. The rings were too big to wear so Himuro suggested something like a necklace to wear it on. He really was like a brother, Kagami thought. Then thinking back on when he and Aomine were younger, he remembered when Aomine asked if he felt like a brother to Kagami.

Yeah, why was it that Himuro felt more like a brother than Aomine? They even do similar stuff together but even then, his friendship with Aomine was different.

 _'So it is love!'_ echoed in his memory and he tried to push said incident out of his mind.

"Stupid Alex", he said to himself, "There's no way it's that…"

Almost at that moment his phone went off and he saw that he had a text message. From Aomine:

'Hey, how are you? Sorry I can't really talk right now, but I just wanted to see how you were doing.'

"Idiot…" Kagami slammed the phone on the bed.

Officially tired of the situation, he got off from his bed and went downstairs to check on the dinner his mother was making.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * This story was written before the Teikou arc started in the manga, so most of the Teikou stuff is just guess-work. Ex. When Kuroko quits the basketball team.  
> Its a slight AU anyways.

There were circumstances that prevented Kagami from staying in Japan for very long this summer. Both he and Aomine had basketball camps, Kagami's was especially important since it had try-outs for his high school's basketball team at the end of camp. Try-outs for normal schools usually wouldn't start until later in the year, but Kagami's high school was one specialized in sports and training programs that ran all-year round. He thought in the back of his mind that his parents allowed him to go to a school like this as an incentive to stay in America after experiencing it for a year. Kagami also wanted to see Himuro before he had to leave. It would be nice to meet up with him in Japan and possibly introduce him to Aomine, but he wasn't moving until Kagami's school semester started.

Teikou was holding a camp for current members. Despite that, Aomine had decided he wasn't going. He felt it was pointless and he knew he wouldn't get in trouble for it even if he didn't. Although it seemed his spark for basketball still hadn't reignited, his friendship with Kagami was starting to mend back together. No matter what, he wanted to fix it so he started to communicate with Kagami again.

Aomine managed to talk it out with Kagami and apologize for his strange behavior once again. Before they made up, Kagami had started to ignore calls and messages that Aomine left, but it was understandable since Aomine had done the same to him. Once Aomine managed to apologized, Kagami seemed to have forgiven him rather easily, although at first he still seemed upset about the fall-out between them that lasted the past few months.  Aomine resolved that he would just have to bury his feelings in order to be there for Kagami as his friend. It didn't matter if his love was not reciprocated, as long as he could see Kagami happy again that's all that mattered. His feelings were second to Kagami's happiness.

But as things started to look like they were improving, they didn't seem to be the same for Kuroko. By the end of the school year, Kuroko had told Kagami that he was quitting the basketball team.

"Why would you do that!? You love basketball!" Kagami was baffled and couldn't have ever imagined Kuroko quitting.

"Well, I guess I might still love it… But I'm not too sure anymore. All I know is that I can't stay on this team anymore or else I might end up hating it for good."

Kagami heard a sigh at the other end of the phone. It was rare for Kuroko to call instead of text, so he knew before he picked up the phone it was something important.

"My teammates… they're changing. In a way, they're all becoming like Aomine-kun, except they're all dealing with it differently. They've become so strong yet they don't work together as a team, and more than anything it seems like they're all against each other. That's not what basketball is about… so I can no longer play on a team with them."

Kagami had wished he could be there for Aomine during his time of uncertainty and now he wished he could do something for Kuroko. In many ways he wished he never left Japan, yet he knew there were a lot of things that he never would've experienced had he not lived in America. Although his parents were busy with their jobs, they always tried their hardest to spend time together, as well as supported his basketball, like they wanted to make up lost time from being apart for three years. Not only that, he wouldn't have met Himuro and Alex, not to mention his teammates. Even with all of these things, Kagami still counted the days until he'd be able to move back to Japan. He felt a bit guilty since his parents had given him everything he could ever ask for, but knowing that he couldn't do anything for Aomine ate away at him. Now even Kuroko was going through a rough patch. Just one more year and hopefully moving back to Japan would be the right decision to make.

* * *

Aomine anticipated Kagami coming to visit although he was more nervous about it than anything else. Kagami could only stay for a couple weeks since his camp started before the school semester started. Kagami even joked about how he was going to high school before Aomine, which in turn Aomine joked that Kagami would have to do his first year of high school a second time when he moved back to Japan. It was almost a relief when Kagami responded with a laugh saying that that was true.

Now he was standing outside the house of Kagami's aunt and uncle. Unlike last year, there was no get-together, but it was alright. Kagami's plane apparently came in late the night before so it probably wasn't good timing anyway. With a deep breath, Aomine knocked on the door and after hearing the thud of footsteps, the door opened.

There stood his best friend who looked like he had gotten even taller from last year. He even looked like he had gotten more masculine but still smiled a warm smile that never seemed to change even though their friendship had gone through some trials. There was still a hug and a 'good to see you again' like all the tension over the past school year had never happened. Appearances might change and both of them are still growing, but Kagami was still the same. Aomine felt himself falling in love all over again.

* * *

Frankly, it was a little difficult to hang out with Kagami again. Kagami seemed completely fine and seemed to have left things in the past, but Aomine still had to remind himself that there was no use in holding onto his feelings for him. He told himself that the heartache would recede eventually but he wished it would come sooner. For now, it was just nice to see Kagami laughing and joking like he usually did. Aomine probably wouldn't have even played any basketball that summer if Kagami wasn't there encouraging him to play one-on-one. Aomine felt that if he could play basketball with Kagami one day, he might start to love it again, because when he played with Kagami it had been the most fun he had with basketball all year.

Aomine had not been very social or friendly with other people in his life as of late, but he couldn't help but feel like the old him with Kagami around.

Momoi seemed relieved to have Kagami back, if only for a bit. She acted like a worried mother about Aomine and told Kagami that his visit is something that is probably good for Aomine at this point. She was also worried about Aomine's missed practices, not only as the team manager but as his friend. She was also glad to have some support in trying to keep Aomine in line, which made Kagami laugh when she mentioned it.

Kuroko and Aomine seemed to have mutually taken a break from being around each other. Kuroko needed some time to think, away from the influence of his former teammates. It upset Aomine that the person he got along with best on the team decided to quit, and really considered quitting himself, but decided to stay if only for the sake of not worrying Kagami. Kagami was already worried about the relationship with Aomine and Kuroko and spent a few days talking and hanging out with Kuroko, probably trying to see if he could change his mind.

A few days before Kagami had to leave he and Aomine decided to go to a summer festival. They had promised to go to another but never got around to going last summer. Momoi had managed to convince Kuroko to go with her so Aomine and Kagami spent the time with each other.

It was nice for Aomine to just relax and have fun with Kagami again. Just like the first time they went to a festival, they behaved like kids; playing and eating all kinds of food. Aomine thought Kagami looked really handsome in his yukata but tried to push the thought out of his mind. But he really did. It wasn't like when they were younger, Kagami was becoming a young man and his body was growing. Even though it was toned and muscular like his own body he still found it attractive. _'Maybe I really do like guys…'_ Aomine thought, a little disheartened. Or maybe it was just Kagami, he wasn't sure. He hadn't had feelings for any other guy, but he hadn't had feelings for any girls either, so he couldn't be sure. He figured it was because he was still preoccupied with Kagami that he didn't even have any room to fall for anyone else.

"Hey, Daiki, let's go early to find a place to watch the fireworks like last time!" Kagami said excitedly.

 _'This guy still gets so worked up over fireworks,'_ Aomine thought.

"So, Kuroko and Satsuki are friends?" Kagami asked as they walked.

"Yeah, I guess. Well, Satsuki kind of has a thing for Kuroko."

"Woah, really?" Kagami hadn't been told that.

"She's pretty shy about it but it's definitely love. I can't say the same for Tetsu though," Aomine responded, "He might like her, but he doesn't really show it if he does. I can't really tell what he's thinking half the time anyway though. Ah, but Kise tagged along with them. I know that Satsuki wasn't such a fan of that," Aomine gave a laugh as they found a pretty isolated place with a good view to sit down.

"Oh yeah, Kise's on your team, right? He's new but he's a good player," Kagami had remembered when Aomine told him about the other 'Generation of Miracles' as they were called.

"Ah, yeah you remembered. Yeah Kise is a little clingy to Tetsu too. Even though Tetsu doesn't really want to talk to any of us, Kise begged Satsuki to allow him to come along. Apparently it wasn't for free though, dunno what he had to do in exchange, she wouldn't tell me," Aomine continued.

"Maybe he's going to give her something of Kuroko's. Like from the locker room," Kagami joked.

"Now that is disturbing and I hope that's not what it is," Aomine laughed.

Kagami lay flat on the grass, "I wonder if they'd ever hook up though, Kuroko and Satsuki."

"I never really thought about it, guess I'd be a little jealous," Aomine replied.

"Jealous of who?"

"Ah, not like that… Just jealous that they'd be in a relationship I guess."

Kagami sat up, looking Aomine in the eyes, "What, do you like someone?" he asked, intrigued.

"Ah…" Aomine's ears started to get warm, "N-No…" he lied. "I guess it would just be nice to be with someone you like, hang out with them, hold hands, kiss…" his face grew redder, what he was saying was embarrassing and out of character but he thought about doing things like that with Kagami often.

"I never thought you'd say stuff like that!" Kagami laughed, "Hmm, have you kissed anyone yet?" Kagami asked, a little curious.

"No… how about you?" Aomine asked, secretly hoping the answer was 'no'.

"I'm kind of surprised you haven't. Girls really like you, don't they? Anyway, as for me, if you don't count Alex, no," Kagami answered.

"Alex…?" Aomine's heart dropped a bit.

"You remember, I told you about her. She coaches Himuro and me, she's always trying to kiss us like some grandma even though she's not that old," Kagami grumbled.

"So… she doesn't count?"

"Nah I wouldn't count her at all. She's just an over-affectionate adult," Kagami answered.

The two sat in silence for a while, shuffling their positions and Kagami lay himself back down on the grass. It remained quiet until Aomine quietly spoke.

"Do you want to know what it feels like to kiss someone?" Against his better judgement, he decided to ask.

"Well, kind of…" Kagami replied.

"…Do you want to try?" Aomine's words were coming out of his mouth without much thought, as if his reasoning was slowly fading and all of the things he tried so hard to hold back were all starting to leak out.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Kagami propped himself up to see Aomine averting his gaze.

"If you want… we could try…" Aomine's face reddened as he nervously wrung his hands in his lap, still avoiding eye contact.

"… With each other?" Kagami asked quietly. Aomine wondered what kind of face Kagami was making, _'a face of disgust'_ he thought and this made him too scared to so much as glance in his direction. But he was overly curious and his curiosity ended up winning over him as he set his sights on Kagami.

Kagami's face was almost as red as his hair; he didn't have a face of disgust but more like an intense nervousness. He stared at the ground beside him plucking at the grass.

"If you want to… We're friends so it shouldn't be weird, right? Just to see what it feels like…" Aomine knew that reasoning didn't make any sense but at this point he would say anything to get Kagami to go along with it. He expected Kagami to snap back to his senses and be in angry denial. What he wasn't expecting was the answer he actually got.

"I guess we can…" Kagami said quietly, turning towards but still averting his eyes from Aomine.

"Really?" Aomine was shocked, he was speaking from his heart and not his brain, his feelings had taken over his rational, yet Kagami wasn't pushing him away. Kagami gave a light nod and continued looking down.

Slowly, Aomine leaned towards Kagami until their noses were close enough to barely touch. Both he and Kagami's breath had quickened and Aomine could feel the warmth of Kagami's breath on his lips. His heart raced so fast he thought it was seriously going to break through his chest and shoot out. Their eyes only met for a split second before both of them went back to staring towards the ground.

Just a little closer and he'd finally be able to feel Kagami's lips on his.

Just a little closer and he wouldn't have to fantasize about what it would feel like.

Just a little closer and their lips would touch.

Just a little closer…

And Kagami's head turned the other way.

"I can't… after all…" Kagami said, exhaling a long breath, "It's strange after all… and people might see us…" He straightened up and brushed his hand through his hair in nervousness.

It happened again, Aomine thought. Again, Kagami denied his advances and a flashback from last summer came hurtling into his memory.

Again, Kagami was made uncomfortable by Aomine's own uninhibited actions.

"Sorry, Daiki. I shouldn't have said it was okay if I was going to chicken out," Kagami laughed nervously, staring off into the distance.

Aomine felt as if he was on the verge of tears, but plastered on a fake smile, "No, it's alright, really. You're right; it was weird after all…" A large lump welled up in his throat.

"We should save something like that for the person we like, I suppose," Kagami said.

"Yeah… right…" Aomine's voice cracked a bit and he hoped that Kagami hadn't noticed.

They sat in awkward silence, but not for long, as they heard the boom of the first firecracker go off.

"Oh, it started," Kagami gazed up at the sky, "And let's just forget about it, okay?" He said with a smile.

"Alright," Aomine smiled the fakest smile he thinks he ever had to in his life.

* * *

**Ch. 8.5**

_(takes place some time before the festival)_

Kagami sat down with his abnormally large order from Magi burger at a nearby booth.

"Man, where is he?" he said out loud to himself.

"Kagami-kun, I'm right here."

Nearly jumping out of his seat he saw the very person he was waiting for already in the same booth as him.

"Jeeze, Kuroko! You really do just sneak up on people, huh?" said a flustered Kagami.

"I'm not sneaking up on anyone, I was sitting here before you were," he said without batting an eye and taking a sip of his shake, "On another note, you eat quiet a lot," he eyed Kagami's tray that was piled with burgers.

"Hm? This is normal. Do you want one? Just a shake isn't enough."

"No, a vanilla shake is plenty for me."

"Well, suit yourself," Kagami said, starting on his first burger.

"I bet you wanted to come here to talk about Aomine-kun," Kuroko said.

"Well, sort of, but it's hard to hang out with you since you and Daiki aren't really talking right now," Kagami's mouth was half filled with food.

"It's mutual, don't worry, I'm not mad at him or anything. I'm not talking to anyone from the team right now. Ah, Kise-kun is constantly trying to get in touch with me though," Kuroko took another sip from his shake.

"I'm just worried about him is all. He seems fine but I can tell something is really bothering him. I wish I knew how to help."

"I think you just being here is helping," Kuroko replied. "Actually, I think that he just needs someone to keep him in line, someone to be his equal. I'm pretty sure everyone on the team needs someone like that, they just aren't as lucky and haven't found them already like Aomine-kun has."

"You really think so? It's not you that's the one that's best for him?" Kagami blushed.

"No, we make a good team but there was nothing I could do to help him no matter how hard I tried. But every time he talks to you or is with you, I can tell his mood improves. Honestly I'm shocked that you even managed to get him to play basketball with you. He doesn't even practice anymore."

Kagami had already started on his third burger, "I didn't know he was so down…"

"Just keep being there for Aomine-kun, he'll realize it sooner or later that there's no one else besides you," Kuroko said rather matter-of-factly.

"O-Okay, of course I'll be there for him," Kagami blushed again, chomping into his burger.

Kuroko smiled and took another sip of his shake.


	9. Chapter 9

Aomine and Kagami hadn't seen each other since the festival a few days before Kagami had to leave for his return to America. Despite everything, Aomine couldn't let Kagami leave without saying good bye and went to the airport to see him off. He figured it might be awkward but he didn't really care, it was going to be a while before he could see Kagami again. Their departure was surprisingly normal. The night of the festival looked like it was going to put an even further dent into their relationship but once again, Kagami seemed to have shrugged it off. Aomine wasn't sure why Kagami did so, but he assumed it was the for the sake of their friendship and wasn't going to make a big deal out of it. It was very carefree of Kagami to forgive over him and over again, but that's the kind of person he is.

But Aomine decided he was done. His back and forth decision as to whether he should maintain his feelings for Kagami was over. He didn't want to waver anymore and he decided he really should just suck it up and get over his one-sided crush, and he did so in a drastic way.

The school semester started and within the first week, a girl had already confessed her feelings to Aomine. He didn't want to brag, but he was very popular with girls. He wasn't sure if it was because of his reputation as part of the Generation of Miracles or if it was his looks, but he had many confessions over the years. Not once did he reciprocate those feelings, though. Although he felt bad about the trail of broken-hearted girls he left behind, he just couldn't bring himself to accept their confessions and go out with them. He knew it was a waste of time when all he could think about was Kagami. But the first girl that confessed to him in his last year of middle school managed to get an 'okay' out of him. Aomine didn't feel a thing for her, he didn't even know who she was until that day, but he figured why not. He was trying to forget Kagami so why not just try to fall in love with the next person that gives him the time of day? Who knows, she could change his mind.

But not even a day had passed when the fact that Aomine actually accepted a confession from a girl spread like wildfire. He was kind of infamous for rejecting all those girls before her, so people wondered what made her so different. So obviously, gossip and rumors started to spread.

"Dammit, if I knew this was going to happen I probably wouldn't have said yes…" Aomine complained under his breath, finally finding a place to escape the nosiness of his fellow classmates.

"Dai-chan!" An all too familiar voice called out to him.

"Satsuki…" He watched her run up to him with an exasperated look on her face.

"When were you planning on telling me you have a girlfriend!?" She huffed, stopping right in front of him.

Aomine tsked and sighed, "I'm assuming you heard like everyone else…"

"Yes, and it would have been nice if YOU were the one to tell me and not for me to hear it from some random gossip!" Momoi lectured.

"It's only been a day! I didn't even have the chance! She must've told all her friends or whatever. Jeeze, I feel like a sideshow or something," Aomine ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

"Well, it is kind of a big deal. I mean, you get asked out all the time and not once have you ever said yes, what's so special about her?" She asked curiously.

"God, I don't know! Okay? I just said yes, why does everyone care!?" Aomine let out his frustration on a nearby fence, kicking it hard with a loud clang.

"You don't have to shout at me! And of course _I_ care, we're friends!" Momoi yelled back.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to get mad at you… I'm just really annoyed right now, if you couldn't tell. Sorry…" Aomine let out another long sigh and leaned up against the fence.

"Well, I guess I didn't know how stressed out you were either. Anyway, you must really like her though, right? I mean, this is the girl you've finally said 'yes' to."

"Not particularly," Aomine gave a blunt response.

"Huh? But you must feel something for her for you to have accepted her confession…"

"I didn't even know who she was until she confessed."

"HUH!? Then why-"

"I just wanted to try it out once, okay? Everyone else is dating so why shouldn't I?" Aomine cut off Momoi as he looked over to see her face of confusion.

"So… You don't even like her? You're just doing it because you feel like it?" Momoi looked more and more confused.

"Yeah. Why not?" Aomine shrugged his shoulders.

Momoi's face dropped a bit, "I didn't think you'd be like that, Dai-chan," she said softly. For a moment, she stood there in silence. "I'm going to head over to the gym, practice is starting soon. Not like you care anyway," and with that she turned and walked off.

Aomine gave the fence another kick and crouched down holding his head in his hands.

"What the hell am I doing…"

* * *

Ever since school started back up, Kagami could not get a hold of Aomine. He only talked to him once since he had gotten back to America and that was to tell him his flight arrived safely. He talked to Momoi a few times but she was very busy with managing the team and had started studying early for her tests. With Kuroko, he got a hold of more often. It still seemed like he was avoiding Aomine and the rest of his former teammates so he didn't have very much information about Aomine. Still, it was nice to hear from him. It was a little boring lately since Himuro moved. He still went to practice with Alex but it wasn't the same with just the two of them. And of course, his high school basketball team was keeping him busy. He bonded pretty quickly with his teammates but he rarely saw them outside of practice.

Honestly, Kagami felt kind of off. Ever since returning to America, he felt a little strange. He couldn't get that night at the festival out of his head. Kagami wasn't very sure as to why actually kissing Aomine didn't sound like a bad idea at all. It was almost a repeat of the previous summer, and both times he stopped Aomine before he could go on any further. Both times he almost let himself get swept away by the heat of the moment before coming to his senses.

After coming home from practice, the house was empty as usual. His parents often worked late so he learned to cook for himself. Grabbing a drink from the fridge, he walked into the living room and plopped himself on the couch.

 _'Why would I want to kiss him?'_ he thought to himself. Kagami asked himself often since that day.

"Haha…" Kagami laughed out loud, "Maybe Alex was right… Maybe I like him," he said to himself. He wasn't very serious, but as he said it, it really seemed like that was actually the correct answer.

Kagami straightened up on the couch, covering his mouth with his hand. _'Do I really like him?'_ he couldn't actually see himself but he was sure his face was starting to turn red. He considered the possibility before, but he never really took it seriously. But this one time, just because he said it out loud, it hit him like a ton of bricks. Quickly, he dug through his pockets for his phone.

"I need to talk to him… I need to clear this all up anyway," Kagami said to himself, and pressed call on Aomine's contact. It was such a revelation that never really hit him. Is that the reason Aomine has acted strange over the past year? Does Aomine actually like him too?

Because Kagami's head was filled with questions he desperately wanted answers to, he forgot that there was a slim chance that his call would be answered. And it wasn't. The call went to voicemail and Kagami hung up without leaving a message.

"Of course he isn't picking up, shit…" Kagami heaved a huge sigh and sank back into the couch, mulling over the situation again, this time, a little more calmly, but he was still frustrated and wasn't sure what to do. How could he confirm what his true feelings were for Aomine if he didn't even answer his stupid phone?

Only a few seconds later, his phone rang. Instantly he answered, "Daiki!"

"Oh… Sorry, Kagami-kun, it's me," a quiet voice that definitely did not belong to Aomine spoke on the other end of the line.

"Kuroko, sorry, I thought you were Daiki…" Kagami was a little disappointed.

"Sorry, I'm not Aomine-kun. But actually, I called to talk about him," Kuroko replied.

"Huh? Talk… sorry, I haven't talked to him yet still." Kuroko knew all about the situation of Aomine and Kagami not talking lately.

"Hmm… really? So then he hasn't told you…" Kuroko mumbled.

"Told me what?"

"Well, it seems Aomine-kun got a girlfriend," Kuroko said quietly.

Kagami felt his heart drop and his breath caught in his throat, "H-Huh?"

"He didn't tell me himself, but apparently its big news going around the school. There probably aren't many people who don't know about it. I thought it was a rumor at first but it seems to be true. I've seen them together during lunch and I've seen them holding hands walking home."

Kagami remained quiet.

"…Kagami-kun?" Kuroko broke the silence.

"Oh… Um, that's good for him… I guess," Kagami barely managed to voice out a response without his voice cracking.

"…Kagami-kun, that's not really how you feel."

It's really hard to keep anything from Kuroko, Kagami thought.

Kagami let out a sigh, "Hah… You think so?"

"I know so," Kuroko responded confidently.

"…Then you'll know I have to hang up now," he gave a frustrated laugh.

"Mhm. You can talk to me some other time."

"Yeah…" Hanging up, Kagami couldn't even prevent his voice from cracking that time as a tear that he fought to hold back rolled down his cheek. After that, there was no holding back the tears that followed.

"He was just messing with me," he laughed, wiping away the falling tears. Aomine wasn't serious, Kagami thought. That kiss he wanted was really just that; 'to see what it feels like'.

 _'Since I wouldn't do it, he's found someone else who would, I guess. They'll probably do even more than that,'_ Kagami made himself feel even worse just thinking about it.

Kagami leaned back on the couch with his arm over his face, "Since I'm crying like this, I guess I really did like him, huh? Hah, this sucks…"

* * *

"And then, Aya-chan…"

 _'God, she's so annoying…'_ Aomine thought as he tried his hardest to hold back an irritated grumble. It had been two weeks since he started dating this girl and she was already working his nerves. They were having their usual lunch together in the courtyard.

"Oh! Aomine-chan! How is the food I made you?" she asked, it seemed she was done with her story.

_'Uhg. What is up with the -chan? Only Satsuki can get away with that…'_

"Ah? Oh, uh, it's great…"

_'It sucks! It's so salty, if I were a slug I'd be dead by now!'_

"Ah! I'm so glad! I made it while thinking of you~" she cooed, nuzzling up to him.

_'Uhg…'_

Aomine looked down at this girl who was now his girlfriend.

_'At least her tits are huge…'_

"Aomine-chan? Do you think we can do something this Saturday?" She asked in a high pitched whine, looking up with pleading eyes.

_'Is this supposed to be cute?'_

"Ah… I don't know… I might be busy," he said trying to find some kind of excuse.

"Ohhh come on! I know you don't have a game this weekend, I know your schedule," she begged.

_'Dammit…'_

"Oh yeah, you're right… Haha… Well I guess we can-"

"Yay! Alright it's a date!" she squealed, latching onto his arm.

"Yeah, guess it is…!" Aomine faked the second fakest smile he ever made.

"I'll make sure we have fun," she said, pushing her body against Aomine's arm.

_'Ah, her boobs are pushing against me. So soft… I wonder if she'd be pissed if I squeezed them, hah…'_

Aomine laughed to himself.

_'If this was Taiga, it wouldn't be soft at all. They'd be firm. Well, he doesn't really have boobs to begin with… Hah… I'm still thinking about him, huh? Shit, I need to pull myself together…'_

Aomine had, one-sidedly, decided to cut contact with Kagami no matter what. At least until he was sure he was over him. Then he'd just say it was busy or something and that would be his excuse for not talking to him. Yeah, he'd forgiven him before, he'll do it again. Then they could go back to being best friends like it should be. Yeah, this time it would work.

* * *

Months passed, and communication between Aomine and Kagami were still non-existent. Kagami focused all his energy into basketball. Basketball really was like therapy, it made him feel better about many things. It also helped him to clear his mind, and that's when he found he could think over things better.

Aomine had actually broken up with the girl he started dating at the beginning of the year. In fact – it was shortly after their date. Although they were through, she wasn't the last. After hearing of their break-up, along with the fact that Aomine was single and actually said 'yes' to a girl, other girl's flocked to confess to him. So of course, he dated one, after another, after another, after another. He didn't date any of them for over two weeks and it seemed to turn into some kind of game of 'who can get Aomine to actually STAY with them?'

Aomine was honestly getting sick of it. Why wasn't it working? There were all these girls at his disposal and he didn't feel a damn thing for any of them. He got rid of them quickly because it was a waste of time to keep them around for very long if it wasn't working out. Might as well move on to the next one as soon as possible. But they all ended up in disappointment and it just made him even more bitter about the whole situation. Towards the end of the year, he started denying confessions again and gradually the amount he was getting started to die out. It wasn't working, so he figured maybe in high school where the girls were more mature would be better.

* * *

"Taiga! It's rare for you to call me!" a cheerful voice spoke over the phone.

"Yeah, sorry I haven't talked to you much lately, how have you been?" Kagami smiled, it was nice to hear Momoi's voice once in a while.

"Oh, I've just been super busy, what, with the team winning yet another tournament and high school exams coming up soon," she did sound a little exhausted.

"Yeah, about that, which school are you planning on going to?" Kagami asked.

"Oh, Dai-chan is set on going to Touou so that's where I'm headed too."

Kagami remained quiet for a moment.

"Alright, that's where I'll go as well."

"Eh? Really? You're really going to be coming back, Taiga? What about America?" Momoi sounded surprised.

"I said I would come back for high school," Kagami laughed.

"Ah, that's so great! I was actually thinking you might have changed your mind," Momoi sounded relieved now.

"I haven't changed my mind about going back, trust me, I feel like I should be there."

"I can't wait; I bet Dai-chan will be happy to hear that…"

"Do you really think so?" Kagami asked.

"Oh… you two still aren't talking, huh? Well, I'm sure he'll quit being like that once I tell him. Really, he's just changed so much over the past year… I'm sure knowing that you're coming back will do him some good," there was a worried tone in her voice.

"I hope so," Kagami said quietly.

They bid each other good bye and Kagami hung up the phone.

Kagami's life in America was honestly going very well. His team had also won tournaments and he was rising up in the ranks fast, even for being a freshman. But he had already made up his mind about going back to Japan. He wasn't exactly sure why, but he felt like he needed to be there now more than ever. It really did have mostly to do with Aomine, as selfish and irrational as it seemed. He was sick of being ignored by him and he wanted everything to be cleared up and be done with. He wanted the old Aomine back.

Now all he needed to do was just figure out a way to tell his parents.


	10. Chapter 10

Kagami's parents were a little disheartened they couldn't convince Kagami to stay in America, but his father had promised that after three years, if he chose to move back to Japan he would allow him too. His father even arranged to buy a place for Kagami to have for himself, as to not burden his aunt and uncle once again. They, of course, would have disagreed and would've openly accepted Kagami back into their home, but Kagami's father wanted him to live closer to the school he had chosen to attend – Touou. His mother wasn't very fond of the idea of having her teenage son live alone, but in the end she trusted that Kagami would make good judgments.

Kagami had to go to Japan almost right after the school year ended in order to take his exams to get in to Touou. Moving was really a pain and he decided to take only the bare minimum, especially since many of the things he'd need he could just buy in Japan. When he arrived, his uncle and aunt met him as usual to drive him to his new place. It was empty since all of his things hadn't arrived yet so they brought a futon for him to sleep in. They asked several times if Kagami would be okay at the apartment by himself and offered for him to stay at their place until everything arrived. He thanked them, but insisted that he'd be fine. He didn't really want to be a burden on them any longer after doing so much for him over the years.

A day later when his stuff had arrived, Momoi, Kuroko, and Himuro came over to help with his move. They were all glad to see him again after a year and it was a really great moment for Kagami. It was the first time Himuro had met both Kuroko and Momoi and it was nice to see all his friends together in one place. Well, for the most part.

"So, Aomine-kun couldn't come, huh?" Kuroko asked. They were taking a rest after getting all of Kagami's boxes out of the moving truck. They were lucky enough to have the movers help move a couch that Kagami's aunt and uncle brought as a moving-in gift. Momoi seemed to really want to sit next to Kuroko even though she didn't say anything. Kagami caught on, though, and sat next to Himuro leaving room for Momoi to sit between him and Kuroko. He found it pretty amusing to see Momoi a little happy to be able to sit next to him.

"Well, it's probably more like he chose not to come," Kagami replied. He still hadn't gotten the chance to talk to Aomine even though he called and had left him several messages, including the fact that Kagami was moving back to Japan and gave him the address of the place he would be living.

Momoi heaved a big sigh, "I really don't know what Dai-chan is thinking. I keep telling him that he needs to talk to you but he ignores me every time. Even I have a hard time talking to him anymore."

"Well, he'll have to get over it since we'll be going to the same high school. And we'll be on the same basketball team," Kagami said He was confident that he would be accepted to the school and the team.

"Hmm, Taiga, you sure you just don't want to come to my school? This Daiki sounds like he's put you through nothing but trouble," Himuro joked, trying to lighten the situation.

"Hah, sorry, Tatsuya, my mind's made up," Kagami smiled.

"I already tried that tactic," Kuroko said quietly.

"Oh, Himuro-kun, which high school do you go to?" Momoi asked.

"Yosen," he was a year older than all of them so he already had spent a year on their basketball team.

"Yosen…" Kuroko said to himself.

"You've heard of our team, right?" Himuro asked.

"Yes, and I believe I know someone who is going to be attending this year," Kuroko answered.

"Oh! You mean Mu-kun, right?" Momoi chimed in. Kuroko nodded. His team seemed to have split off into different high schools, including him. The reason for that was unknown to everyone besides the team themselves.

"Hmm, 'Mu-kun', huh?" Himuro said, "Is he possibly one of the Miracles?"

Kuroko hesitated for a moment, "…Possibly."

"Heh, well that'll be interesting," Himuro gave a small laugh.

* * *

Kagami had passed his exam with ease. He had slowly unpacked most of the things from his boxes but really, he was only doing it as he needed things, so things like clothes were the first to come out. Luckily, the apartment had come with a pretty decent kitchen with the necessary appliances, so all he needed was some cookware. His mother had given him her extras so he was pretty much set. It actually didn't take him very long at all to get used to being by himself. It might have had to do with the fact that he rarely saw his parents during the school week anyway. Plus, he had his friends. Himuro probably came over the most. Kagami figured it was due to him having somewhat of a brother complex, so he wanted to make sure Kagami was doing alright by himself. He'd always ask if he needed anything and to call no matter what time if he had to. Himuro really was like his brother so it was nice to have him around in Japan. Still, he wished that Aomine would talk to him again.

"I'll definitely fix this once school starts…" Kagami said to himself.

* * *

The first day of school brought the opening ceremony and tons of clubs trying to recruit brand new freshman. Kagami knew exactly where he wanted to go and made a beeline towards the sign that read 'Touou High Basketball Team'.

"I want to join the team!" he tried to keep himself from shouting but he still ended up speaking loudly.

Neither of the two sitting at the table seemed to be caught off guard though. The one at the right wore glasses, had medium-length, black hair and a really smug face, almost looking like a fox. He arched his eyebrow in response to Kagami's sudden appearance. The other guy's hair was short and brown and a bit bulkier than his teammate, he kept a stoic expression.

"Oh, you're an enthusiastic first year, aren't you?" The glasses-guy smirked.

"Y-Yes! I'm willing to dedicate myself to the team!" Kagami responded like he was getting drilled by some military officer.

The glasses-guy laughed, "There's no reason to be so uptight. We'll see how you are when try-outs start. Just fill out this form and come to the gym on the assigned date when they're scheduled, alright?"

"Ah, of course," Kagami took the form nervously and scribbled down his information and handed it back when he was finished.

The glasses-guy looked over the information, the quiet one leaned over to read on as well, "Hmm, interesting. You were in America up until this school year? I see, wouldn't it be interesting to have a Miracle _and_ a returnee on our team?"

The silent guy nodded in agreement.

"Miracle…" Kagami said quietly.

"Yes, you may not know about it since you haven't been in Japan for however long you were gone, but there was an unstoppable middle school team up until last year because, well, they're all in high school now. None of them seemed to have attended the same school," glasses explained, "And, well, the ace of their team is attending Touou."

Kagami knew exactly who this guy was talking about. Aomine really was attending Touou, the same school as him.

"Needless to say, that means one of our first-year spots has already been taken up. Knowing that your chances have slimmed a bit, are you still willing to try out?"

"Yes! I'm determined to make it onto this team no matter what," Kagami spoke with resolve, he would – no, he WILL be on the same team as Aomine again.

"I think I like you already, my name is Imayoshi Shoichi. I'm the Captain, and this is Susa Yoshinori," Imayoshi held out his hand with a smirk.

"Thank you, Imayoshi-senpai, Susa-senpai" Kagami took his hand and gave a firm shake.

"We look forward to seeing what you have to offer," Imayoshi said as Kagami departed from the table.

* * *

Kagami took a deep breath outside the gym for his first day of try-outs. It was going to be held over a span of three days, and on the fourth day results would be posted.

"You can do this, Taiga," he said to himself before pushing the doors open. He saw a few people already doing their stretches, but Aomine was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh, returnee-boy! Kagami, was it?" Imayoshi noticed Kagami looking around and summoned him over to the court.

"Hello, senpai," Kagami greeted.

"Good to see you came, although, I didn't doubt you would," Imayoshi clapped a hand on Kagami's shoulder.

"Let's see… You can go stretch with Sakurai over there," Imayoshi pointed towards a small, frail looking brown-haired boy stretching by himself.

Kagami walked over to the boy whose back was facing him, "Hey, it looks like we'll be stretching partners."

Kagami didn't speak very loudly and he actually had a pretty kind tone to his voice, but the boy seemed to have nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of it.

"Ah! S-Sorry!" he looked back to see Kagami towering over him, his eyes started to water.

"No… it's okay," Kagami got down on the floor, "I'm Kagami Taiga," he gave a small wave.

"Ah, my name is Sakurai Ryou," he said quietly, avoiding eye contact.

 _'What is up with this kid?'_ Kagami thought to himself. If he was going to act like this, would he really be fit for being on a basketball team? Had he even ever _played_ basketball before?

Kagami got through his stretches (somehow) with Sakurai and the time for the tryouts to begin was nearing. They all gathered in front of the third and second years with Imayoshi front and center for their group warm-up. After the warm-up, Imayoshi began to debrief the schedule for the next few days. Kagami paid attention as much as he could but incessantly glanced around the room for a sign of Aomine, but to no avail – he was nowhere to be seen.

 _'Did he decide to not join the team after all? Ah, maybe since he's already guaranteed a spot, he won't come…'_ He thought, a little upset.

Only moments later did the door to the gym open, catching everyone's attention. A tall, dark-haired, dark-skinned, student walked through the doors, yawning and still in his school uniform.

Kagami's eyes widened, "D-"

"Aomine Daiki!" Imayoshi interrupted Kagami's almost accidental outburst, "You are late to the try-outs," he said sternly.

"Ah, my bad, senpai, I overslept…" he said with another yawn.

Imayoshi didn't bat an eye, "I believe I remembered the agreement was that even though you have a position on the team already, you are still required to attend the try-outs. Or were you thinking of not having a chance of a starting position for the duration of your first year on the team?"

Mutters were heard from the crowd around Kagami. Imayoshi might've been older but he had just threatened _the ace_ of the Generation of Miracles.

Aomine scowled but didn't argue back, "Sorry, it won't happen again."

"Good! Now go get changed and when you get back, you owe me twenty laps," Imayoshi made that smirk he seemed to do often.

Aomine tsked and stormed off to the locker room.

"Now!" Imayoshi's shouted, quieting the crowd, "We're going to start with lay-ups. Everyone get into your assigned groups."

Kagami got into his group and noticed that Aomine was already out and running laps around the gym with Imayoshi making sure it was exactly twenty.

After a few drills they were moving into groups to do free-throws. Aomine had gotten done with his laps by then and had been assigned to join the group next to Kagami's. Kagami glanced over to look at Aomine and almost at the same time, Aomine looked over in the direction of Kagami. They made eye contact and as soon as Aomine realized it was Kagami his face softened and his jaw dropped slightly. It seemed like he was about to say something but he turned his face to look away. Kagami wasn't sure what to think of Aomine's reaction, but wished he'd turn to look his way again.

"Kagami Taiga! You're next!" A voice called out, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Ah, yes!" he responded, catching the ball that was thrown at him. Clearing his mind of the emotions he was currently being bombarded with, he made his shot. It went cleanly into the net.

* * *

Practice had ended and a lot of the first years seemed to be beyond exhausted. Kagami was a little used to this type of practice since his high school in America had pretty demanding practices but even he was feeling a little worn out. He got to see and gauge who he thought would make the cut judging on everyone's performance and how they were feeling after day one.

 _'That Sakurai kid ended up actually doing pretty good,'_ he thought to himself.

Of course Aomine did well and even ended up intimidating some of the other first years.

Everyone gathered in the locker room to get changed and take showers. A lot of the students worried if they could not only take two more days of this, but an entire year of practices like this. Kagami was determined to do almost anything to get on this team. He was considering taking a shower as well until he saw Aomine walk out of the locker room, bag in tow.

 _'I'll just take one at home,'_ he said to himself and walked out after him. He finally had the opportunity to talk to him after almost a year and he wasn't going to pass it up.

"Daiki!" he shouted running up to him outside of the gym, he had taken the back exit. Aomine spun around, knowing exactly who was calling his name.

"Taiga…" he said quietly. They both stood there in awkward silence.

"Why haven't you answered any of my calls…?" Kagami didn't know if getting right to the point was smart but he couldn't wait any longer. He needed to know.

Aomine exhaled in frustration, running a hand through his hair, "Sorry…"

A one word reply wasn't good enough.

"Just tell me why!" Kagami could already feel himself starting to break down, but not yet, he couldn't do that just yet. He had to keep calm.

Aomine looked like he was actually in pain trying to find the words to say, "I've… changed, Taiga," he had difficulty looking up at Kagami's face.

"Just because you've 'changed' doesn't give you the excuse to avoid me, I thought you were going to let me know whenever something was bothering you?" Kagami took a step forward.

"It's more complicated than that, it's not something I can talk about so easily."

"You don't know unless you try…" Kagami said.

"I don't want to hurt you, this is my problem and I don't want to involve you in it," Aomine replied.

"You aren't going to hurt me," Kagami almost sounded like he was pleading and grabbed Aomine's arm.

Aomine quickly pulled it away, "Please, don't," he said, turning his back on Kagami.

He took a few steps away until he felt something heavy slam against his back. He turned around to see a gym bag on the ground and Kagami making an angry face, tears welling up in his eyes.

"Bastard…" he barely managed to croak out, breathing heavily to prevent his tears from falling.

Aomine went to take a step forward but stopped himself.

"I just want to be there for you, we're best friends! You avoid me for a year and you don't even give me a reason why when I can finally talk to you again!?" Kagami's voice cracked.

Aomine wore a worried expression but wasn't really sure what to say, "We just can't-"

"Why!" Kagami shouted.

"It's because I lo-!" Aomine stumbled to correct himself, "It's because I care about you that I don't think we can be friends anymore…"

Kagami's face dropped and a tear fell from his eye, "What…? What about the team then?"

Aomine turned away from Kagami, "You don't have to be friends to be a team," he said softly.

"Fine," Kagami's voice seemed to stabilize. He walked up to where Aomine was, picked up his bag and continued to walk away without another word.

* * *

Aomine couldn't move an inch from the spot he was at but it felt like his legs could no longer support him. He crouched down against the wall of the gym and cradled his head in his hands, letting out quiet sobs.

He knew Kagami would be there at the try-outs. He listened to every single one of the voicemails that were left on his phone. Each time he wanted so badly to return the calls but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. And even though he knew Kagami would show up, it was still a shock to actually see him again. If he could've, he would've run up and hugged him at that instant. But instead he was cold and distant with Kagami.

He never, ever wanted to see Kagami like that. He never wanted to see Kagami hurt and that's exactly what he was trying to avoid. He didn't want to hurt Kagami, yet he ended up doing just that anyway.

"I really am no good…" He said to himself.

"Dai-chan!" A distressed voice called out with running footsteps following soon after.

Momoi slammed her bag on the ground and crouched down to where Aomine was.

"What's wrong!?" She sounded upset; she put her hands on Aomine's shoulders.

Aomine didn't say a word and wrapped his arms around her.

"Satsuki…" He managed to say in between sobs.

She returned the hug, clearly worried but unsure as to why Aomine was in that state. She had hardly ever seen Aomine cry. She could count on one hand the times she's seen him cry, and she wouldn't have even used all her digits. She then remembered what she was walking towards the gym for in the first place – to talk to the captain about becoming team manager since today was the first day of try-outs.

"Did you see Kagami?" She asked.

"Yeah… I made him cry," he said, still clinging on to her.

"Dai-chan…" She comforted him, she knew Aomine had changed a lot over the past year, but this vulnerable side he was showing right now showed that he was still the Aomine she grew up with. "I don't know your reason for avoiding Taiga, but I don't think you should do it anymore. I mean, look how much it's hurting both of you," she said softly, "I don't care what your reasoning is, just please make up with him, okay? Let's go back to how it should be."

Aomine didn't respond but she knew that he took what she said to heart. She sat with him for a little while longer until Aomine said he was fine. She was still a bit worried, but let him walk off as she headed into the gym to talk with Imayoshi.

* * *

Kagami thought a shower would help him cool off but it didn't do much except make him feel a lot cleaner. He sat down on the couch in his towel and stared at the ceiling, not even bothering to get changed, he just sat there letting his mind go blank. Thinking he might fall asleep just like that, he heard his phone go off. He really didn't want to get up and get it, but decided that sleeping on his couch fully naked and half wet was just begging for him to catch a cold. He lazily got up and grabbed his phone off the counter; it was a message from Momoi.

It simply read: "Please don't give up on Dai-chan".

He stared at the screen a while before heaving a huge sigh. Setting down his phone, he walked into the bedroom.

 _'She must've talked to him right after that argument,'_ he thought to himself. He really didn't want to give up on Aomine, but from what he heard today it seemed like Aomine had given up on him. He'd really have to think this one through, he knew Momoi wouldn't say something like that without certainty, but she wasn't there for that conversation.

After getting changed, he lay on his bed, physically and emotionally exhausted. _'I guess I'll sleep on it,'_ he thought. And sleep came to him swiftly.


	11. Chapter 11

Kagami got up, got ready for school and packed for his second day of try-outs. He decided that he really shouldn't give up on Aomine, Momoi was right. The only thing was he wasn't sure what he should do next. He knew that deep down Aomine didn't really want to call off their friendship, he could tell by the hurt expressions he was making the previous day. Kagami just didn't really care in the heat of the moment of his anger. At this point he wasn't necessarily worrying about his possible feelings for Aomine – he just wanted to repair his friendship first.

Giving up on the team wasn't an option either. Whether Aomine was there or not, basketball was his passion and that was another thing he would never give up on.

The second day of try-outs went much like the first day. The third day, though, was a lot more intense than the past two days. This was the day the coach came to introduce himself, and along with the captain, they were going to analyze the first year's every move and ultimately make the decision as to who was going to make the cut. Their regular drills went on, but were cut short for two one-quarter games with teams made of first years, each team having one second and one third year each.

Kagami was assigned to a team with Aomine. They had not spoken a word to each other since their argument. Kagami really wondered if they'd be able to get through this game despite the tense atmosphere between them. The second year on their team was a guy named Wakamatsu who had short, spiky blond hair. He seemed to have an intense and serious air about him. Kagami had already heard him get into a couple tiffs with Aomine on previous days for not paying attention to what he said. The third year was Susa, the one he met at sign-ups with Imayoshi. Sakurai was on the other team; he was, surprisingly, one of the strongest players besides Aomine and Kagami at the camp. Imayoshi himself was on the sidelines with the coach, who were to observe the game. Momoi was also there, Kagami knew she was a pro at analyzing players and she was also the manager at Teikou, so Imayoshi and the coach were probably curious as to what information she had to offer during a game.

And with a whistle from the coach, the game began.

* * *

In an almost staggering win, Kagami and Aomine's team won. Halfway through it seemed that the other team was starting to give up, for the exception of Sakurai. Even the upperclassmen seemed to have played with a little less enthusiasm. The teams walked off the court and onto the benches to cool down and watch the other teams play their one quarter.

And, surprisingly, Kagami and Aomine worked well together despite their lack of communication. Both also play the same position too, but seeing as Aomine had such a reputation he was made power forward and Kagami was assigned as center. Kagami was actually pretty versatile with which position he playedm but he preferred offensive plays and power forward was the position he was best at. The success of their match was almost obvious but Kagami felt that it went too well, if that was possible.

 _'I guess Daiki was right, you don't have to be friends to make a team,'_ he sighed, slouching over and hanging his head.

"Hey, why are you so down? We won, right?" the second year, Wakamatsu, was sitting next to Kagami and noticed his far from happy reaction to winning.

"Ah, I'm glad we won, just a little tired," Kagami gave a smile and tried to play off the burden of his thoughts.

"I see. Well, you've done great these past few days; I'd be surprised if you didn't get on the team. I usually play center and even though I heard you usually play as a PF you were pretty damn good," he said confidently.

"Ah, thank you," Kagami replied. It was pretty nice to hear his senpai speak highly of him before even making it on the team.

"That Aomine guy, he's good but he's way too cocky. His attitude is seriously the worst. Just because he's one of the Miracles he feels like he can do whatever he wants," he said speaking in a quieter voice as to not be overheard by the guy who was sitting only a couple people down from him.

"Hah… Yeah…" Kagami wasn't sure how to respond.

The whistle blew and the second game came to an end, this time with scores much closer to each other. Coach Harasawa summoned all of the students to gather for a final speech.

"Everyone did well and I definitely see some great talent out there. The results will be posted tomorrow, good luck to everyone," and with that final statement the last day of try-outs were over. Everyone gave a huge collective sigh; the hardest part was over, now they just had to wait and see if they'd make it to the team.

Kagami was heading towards the locker room until he heard his name being called.

"Kagami, Aomine, can I see you two for a second?" It was Imayoshi, who was standing by the coach.

Kagami was nervous about being called out, and with Aomine at that. He wasn't sure if this was a bad thing or a good thing. He walked over and stopped in front of the captain, Aomine standing right next to him. They didn't say a word to each other as they waited to hear what the coach and captain had to say.

"I want to see you two play against each other," the coach said.

"Like, 1-on-1?" Kagami asked.

"Yes. I asked Imayoshi to put you two together on the same team despite you having the same position because I wanted to see how you two played together. But now I want to see how you two fare against each other. Don't worry, this is because you're the player who has me the most interested, Kagami," the coach added, handing him a ball.

Kagami took it and glanced over to Aomine. He didn't seem to have any rebuttals to the request but his face looked tense. They got ready on the court and for the first time Kagami realized that Momoi was also there, sitting on the bench with a worried expression. Kagami gave her a quick smile for a bit of reassurance.

"Let's keep it short; I'm sure you two are tired. It'll end with the first person to reach five baskets," the coach said, blew his whistle and the 1-on-1 match began…

And with a tie-breaking win, Aomine won 5 – 4. The match was intense and both seemed to be more exhausted than they had in the past few days. Kagami bent over with his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath.

"Is that all?" Aomine spoke for the first time since the match started.

"Hm, yes, I've seen all I needed to. Thank you, you two," the coach grinned.

And with that, Aomine turned to walk away and threw the basketball behind his head, making it into the net. Imayoshi made an audible 'hmph' and went to receive the ball.

"Thank you, coach, if you'll excuse me…" Kagami headed towards the exit of the gym. He heard footsteps following behind him.

"Taiga, are you okay?" It was Momoi, still looking worried.

"I'm fine, Satsuki," he gave another reassuring smile, "He keeps getting better, huh? I can never catch up to him."

Momoi stayed quiet for a moment, "… It was almost like how you guys used to be, though. Except neither of you were smiling…" She said quietly.

Kagami was caught off guard by her words. He set a hand on top of her head, "I'll make sure you see us smiling again, don't worry."

Kagami gave her head a few pats and walked out of the gym.

* * *

Kagami woke up early to hurry to school to check the results of the try-outs before school started. Not surprisingly, many of the other students who tried out were already there checking their fates when he arrived. Some looked disappointed while others looked thrilled and relieved. Kagami made his way through the crowd. Almost right away he spotted his name.

"Sixth man…" he whispered to himself. He had made it, and although he wasn't a starter, it was the next best thing. He wondered if the 1-on-1 match with Aomine had any influence on his position on the team. He looked to see that two first-years had managed to make it into starting positions. Of course, Aomine's name was one of them.

 _'That little shrimp ended up being shooting guard, huh?'_   He thought to himself, reading Sakurai's name.

Relieved that he made it onto the team, Kagami started his walk towards his classroom but spotted Aomine walking towards the gym.

_'What is he doing here? He was guaranteed a spot on the team, right? He shouldn't have to check for his name.'_

Aomine didn't seem to notice Kagami as he walked up to the list of people who made the cut. Kagami watched as he read the list, and at one point, saw him sigh as if a burden had been lifted. But at the same time he had a troubled expression. Without looking at the list any longer, he turned and walked away.

* * *

Aomine was pretty confident that Kagami would make the team, but he had to make sure. He figured it would look pretty pointless to check the results when everyone knew he already had a spot, but he could just use the excuse of wanting to know who his future teammates were – which was kind of true.

Looking at the results, he spotted Kagami's name right away.

 _'Hah, knew it. Even though he deserves my position more than I do,'_ he thought to himself. With a sigh, he pushed his way through the crowd and left to head to his usual spot on the rooftop. As usual, he didn't feel like going to class today.

Yesterday was the most fun he had with basketball since last year when Kagami was back for summer. Kagami seriously was one of the few people he knew who didn't underestimate himself when it came to basketball and actually gave him a challenge instead of giving up. It honestly took everything he could to not start smiling like an idiot in the middle of the match. That's why he left right after; he didn't want his façade to fall apart.

_'But I guess I'm going to have to stop avoiding him now, huh? We're on the same team so we at least have to get along.'_

This was the day he was looking forward to, to finally be on the same team with Kagami, and yet he couldn't feel completely happy about it. Their relationship was still strained; they hadn't talked to each other since the fight.

Aomine reached the rooftop and lay down where he had already claimed a favorite spot and let out a deep sigh. Since that day, he thought a lot about what Momoi said. Maybe acting this way was just really selfish of him. Although he finally decided to stop his back and forth decision as to whether he should stay Kagami's friend and distance himself, it was kind of hard to do now that they were going to see a lot more of each other.

"Maybe I should just get it over with and confess? Hah, yeah right…" He said out loud to himself.

But Aomine missed having his best friend. It felt like a huge part of him was missing, and now that missing part was right there in front of him. Not only that – after seeing him the past few days, he knew his love for him hadn't faded a bit despite trying to 'cure' himself by dating all those girls. There were girls that already seemed to be taking interest at him at Touou, and he really considered dating any of them that came to him, but he was getting tired of the charade.

"…I'll talk to him tomorrow…" Tomorrow was already the first day of practice, and the unneeded tension had to stop, there was no need for it to flow into other people's concerns with the team. Aomine wasn't planning to go to hardly any of the practices but that was the only place he could get a hold of Kagami, they were in separate classes, not that it mattered much since Aomine didn't go to class very often anyway. He tried to doze off but he couldn't with all of the thoughts running through his head. Giving up, he decided to head to class after all.

* * *

Aomine had actually arrived early for practice and found Kagami as soon as he could. He told him he needed to talk to him when the practice was over, and Kagami looked a little shocked that Aomine was talking to him and just gave a quick 'okay'.

After practice was over, they met outside at the back of the gym, near the last place they had spoken.

"What is it?" Kagami asked who seemed to be a little on guard.

With a deep sigh Aomine made his proposal, "Let's just start over."

Kagami scrunched his face a bit, a little confused as to what Aomine just said, "Start over?"

"I… I really don't want to fight," Aomine looked down at the ground and kicked at the dirt.

"Of course I don't want to either," Kagami said.

Aomine continued, "I didn't think so. So let's just… start over. I'm sorry for upsetting you but, can you please just give me some time to explain everything to you? I'm just not ready yet, so…" He dropped off the end of his sentence, not knowing how to really finish it.

"You really expect me to forgive you so easily?" Kagami's voice cracked and Aomine looked up to see Kagami's face twisted into a frown and his brows furrowed.

"No… I know what I did to you was terrible, I can't believe myself even…" Aomine didn't want to make Kagami upset yet again. He turned his head away, not wanting to see the face Kagami was making longer than he had to.

"Do you really promise that you'll explain it all to me when you're ready?"

Aomine hesitated for a moment but responded firmly, "Yes, I just need some time to sort things out and prepare myself. I promise…"

"And you won't keep things from me anymore?" Kagami added.

"Yes…" Aomine said with resolve. Suddenly, he felt a pain in his face that sent him reeling back a step or two. "Ow... Shit..." It hurt like a bitch but he knew he deserved it. Kagami had given him a good punch to the face, he held his hands over the point of impact and winced at the pain. But what followed was unexpected; a warm embrace surrounded him.

"I'm letting you off easy…" Kagami said softly, tightly hugging Aomine. "You have to promise you won't pull that shit again or I really won't forgive you next time."

"I promise," Aomine's face still stung but he returned the embrace and wrapped his arms around Kagami.

"If you promise that then you can take your time telling me then," Kagami added.

Aomine's shoulders felt lighter but even though he promised Kagami that he'd tell him one day, he didn't know exactly what he was going to do now. There was no more avoiding Kagami and he knew that eventually he'd have to let the truth out; because there seemed to be no stopping his feelings for the man in his arms right now. He figured the time would come when it would and hopefully things would work out when it happens.

"I missed you so much," Kagami said quietly into Aomine's shoulder.

"Me too."

Aomine hoped that Kagami didn't notice the fast pumping of his heart.


	12. Chapter 12

Slowly, the relationship between Aomine and Kagami had begun to repair itself. They eventually started to converse like normal and even spent time with each other during lunch, and occasionally went to Maji Burger after practices. Aomine even attended practices more often than he did at his last year at Teikou.

Kagami didn't get to talk to Kuroko as often since both of them were busy, but he took the opportunity to call him up to let him know about the situation with him and Aomine.

"That's really great news, Kagami-kun," even Kuroko's flat tone seemed a little cheery when Kagami told him.

"Yeah, I really hope we can work things out now. It almost feels like we're starting our friendship over again in some ways though," Kagami was a little concerned about that but was still hopeful.

"It'll take some time, I suppose. Although I think Aomine-kun deserved more than a punch to the face," Kuroko replied.

Kagami laughed, "You're probably right. I guess I just really have a hard time staying mad at him… Guess that makes me kind of an idiot, but oh well."

"It's because you care about him so much."

"Yeah, you're probably right about that too," Kagami smiled warmly. Even though they were talking over the phone, Kuroko knew the face Kagami was making at that moment. "Anyway, how about we all meet up again sometime? Like after our practices. You haven't really talked to him much either lately, right?"

"Yes, I avoided him at first because I needed a break from the Miracles, but I kind of forgave them for that a while ago. I just continued to avoid Aomine because he was being so terrible to you," Kuroko was a small guy but you really didn't want to have him on your bad side. "But I suppose since you two seemed to have worked things out, I can start talking to him again."

Kagami gave another laugh, "Well that's good. How about we meet up on Monday at Maji Burger? Maybe then you can give Aomine a piece of your mind."

"I'm afraid if I do that I may get banned from the establishment," Kuroko said in scarily calm voice.

"Wow, Kuroko, sometimes you can be kind of frightening," Kagami wasn't sure if Kuroko was kidding or not.

"Don't worry, I'll just give him a stern scolding," Kuroko reassured and Kagami kind of felt relieved that Kuroko was probably kidding before. Probably.

So Monday came and Kagami and Aomine headed over to Maji Burger after practice to meet up with Kuroko.

"You know, I feel kind of bad for not keeping in touch with Tetsu lately," Aomine seemed a little on edge about meeting up with Kuroko for the first time in a while.

"I think you should be more worried about your safety more than anything," Kagami gave a smug smile.

"Huh!?" Aomine knew very well how Kuroko could be despite his smaller stature.

Kagami ignored Aomine's worried expression as they walked through the doors of the restaurant. It took them a while, but they finally spotted Kuroko at a nearby table.

"Took you two long enough to notice," Kuroko sighed, already sipping at a vanilla shake.

"Sorry…" Kagami still couldn't believe how hard it was to notice Kuroko sometimes.

Aomine sat down at the seat across from Kuroko. Kagami remained standing.

"I'll go order my food," he said heading towards the cash register, leaving Aomine and Kuroko alone.

"So, how's it been, Tetsu?" Aomine asked, a bit nervous from the stare he was getting from Kuroko.

The guy across from him didn't say a word but Aomine soon felt a swift kick right to his shin.

"Ow! What the hell, Tetsu!" Aomine growled and hunched over, grabbed his leg in pain.

"How could you do that to Kagami-kun?" Kuroko asked in a serious voice.

He didn't need to explain what he was talking about for Aomine to know. He knew! And he regretted it more than anything.

"I'm sorry! Ok? I was a jerk, but we're cool now…" Aomine rubbed the spot where Kuroko kicked him but it didn't take long until he felt a sharp pain on the foot of his opposite leg. "Dammit, Tetsu! That shit hurts! I said I was sorry!"

"Do you even know how much Kagami-kun was worried about you? He probably didn't tell you since he's nice, but almost every day he asked me about you. He was always concerned about if you were doing well even though you never answered his calls or his messages," Kuroko's usual expressionless face was now hardened into a serious glare.

Aomine's face dropped and his brow furrowed, "He didn't tell me that…" Aomine said quietly.

He knew he had hurt Kagami but he didn't know his friend worried so much over him. He thought he was doing Kagami a favor by avoiding him but it just caused him to needlessly worry.

"I really do feel like shit about it, really," Aomine continued, "That's why I want to make it up to him and fix our friendship. I won't do that to him ever again." He looked Kuroko in the eyes, "I mean it."

Kuroko casually took another sip of his shake. "As long as you've learned your lesson," he said a lot more calmly. "Now should I kick you for what you pulled last year with basketball?"

"P-Please don't," Aomine knew he probably deserved it but Kuroko's kicks were painful. "I've definitely learned my lesson with that; I go to practice more often…"

"Good," Kuroko took another sip.

Moments later, Kagami arrived with a tray filled with food.

"I'll always be surprised by how much you can fit in your stomach," Aomine said, staring at the massive amount of food. He got up to make his order and Kagami took his place, sitting across from Kuroko.

"You weren't too harsh to him, were you?" Kagami gave a small laugh, unwrapping his first burger.

"No, not really," the scary thing was that Kuroko didn't think that was a lie at all.

"That's good, I was actually kind of worried there for a minute," Kagami gave a nervous laugh.

It didn't take long for Aomine to return with much less food on his tray, but still a large portion. He took a seat next to Kagami.

"Oh yeah, how is your team so far, Kuroko?" Kagami asked.

"I think the team is pretty well balanced although it feels like maybe something is missing. That's why you should've come to Seirin instead, Kagami-kun."

"Hey, Taiga belongs on Touou's team," Aomine interjected.

"Funny, since I'm the one who actually asked him to come to my school," Kuroko threw Aomine a look. He still hadn't completely forgiven him, hadn't he? Aomine quickly shut his mouth as if his own mother was scolding him.

"You know, I really did consider going to Seirin. But there was just something in me that said I had to go to Touou. Well, it was probably due to the fact that I wanted to play with Aomine again," Kagami faintly smiled and Aomine slightly blushed.

Kuroko stared at the two; he couldn't believe how dense they were.

"Ah! Kurokocchi!" A cheery voice came from beside them and an attractive, blond-haired, high school student trotted up to their table. He smiled a huge grin, beaming with such happiness that you could almost see flowers floating around his face.

"Kise-kun…" Kuroko's expression didn't change despite this sudden visitor who was obviously ecstatic to see him.

"Aominecchi is here too! Ahh, I haven't seen you since high school started. And… I don't think I know you?" he looked at Kagami and you could almost see the cogs in his brain turning, trying to figure out if he had seen him before.

"This is Kagami-kun, he's my friend and Aomine-kun's childhood friend," Kuroko spoke up.

"How's it going?" Kagami gave a small wave. So this was Kise, huh? He had never really met any of the other Miracles besides Kuroko. He was told that Kise was a model and he definitely had the looks of one.

"Ohhh! I've heard about you!" Kise sat down next to Kuroko, inviting himself into their group. Kuroko glared at him but Kise didn't seem to notice.

"Really?" Kagami was a little surprised.

"Yeah! Aominecchi would bring you up a lot," he looked over to the man in question but Aomine didn't seem happy to have Kise there.

"What are you doing here anyway?" Aomine asked.

"Huh!? Ah… um…" Kise seemed to get flustered for some reason, even though it was a normal question.

"Yeah, you rarely come here since you watch your diet for your modeling," Kuroko added.

"W-Well," Kise seemed to try to come up with a good excuse, "I just happened to see Kurokocchi from the window! So I decided to come in and say hi."

"You just _happened_ to notice him?" Kagami asked. It seemed unlikely to just suddenly notice him; even if you were looking for him he was kind of hard to find.

"I-It's not like I walk by here all the time and have learned that Kurokocchi sits in the same spot every time…" Kise was a terrible liar. Almost shockingly so.

Kuroko sighed, "Then why did you come in today of all days when I actually have company?"

"Well, I wasn't going to but then I noticed you were with Aominecchi and it made me realize that I kind of miss being around you guys…" Kise pouted. Kagami could almost see an animal… a puppy? Yeah, that was it. And he didn't necessarily like dogs all that much…

A smile actually crept on to Kuroko's face, "I guess we've missed you too."

"Don't say 'we'," Aomine added in a mumble.

Kise's smile returned to his face and obviously ignored what Aomine said. Either that or he didn't hear it, "Aww, Kurokocchi!" Now he was looking like his owner just praised him.

"But that doesn't change the fact that you interrupted my conversation with Aomine-kun and Kagami-kun," Kuroko added.

"Oh, I'm sorry…" Kise went back to pouting, "I guess I'll excuse myself then."

"You don't have to go. I mean, if the others don't mind…" Kagami wasn't sure why he said that, maybe because he actually felt sorry for Kise in some strange way.

"Well if Kagami-kun doesn't mind, I don't," Kuroko said.

"Whatever…" Aomine grumbled.

"Kagami is really nice too," Kise smiled and stayed in place. "Hey, tell me some things about when you and Aominecchi were growing up!"

"Ehh, not much, really. We played a lot of basketball."

"Oh yeah! I remember Aominecchi saying you were really good at playing. Which high school do you go to?"

"Mine," this time Aomine answered.

Kise muffled a laugh, "Psh, 'mine', that sounds so possessive, Aominecchi."

Aomine stared an intimidating look at Kise and he quickly dropped the subject.

"A-Anyway, I'm really curious as to how you play. I hope we get to play a game against each other soon."

"Yeah, I'm sure we will. I want to play a game against you too, and the rest of the Miracles," Kagami said.

"With Aominecchi on your team, I'm sure you'll be playing all of them eventually," Kise smiled.

All of them continued their small talk until they had to leave and part ways. Kagami waved goodbye to all of them and could see Kise insisting he walk Kuroko home, with Kuroko continuously denying him. Kagami laughed and started towards his apartment. So that was Kise, huh? He seemed a little eccentric but not necessarily a bad guy. He thought Kuroko was exaggerating when he said he was clingy but tonight proved he was telling the truth. Kagami wondered how the rest of the Miracles were as he continued his walk home.

* * *

The team was just finishing up one of their weekend practices and everyone was in the locker room changing out of their clothes. This was always a really difficult challenge for Aomine and that's why he rarely stuck around very long in the locker room when they were changing. He didn't really care about anyone else but it was really hard not to gawk at Kagami while he was changing. He'd catch a few glimpses but if he stared any longer, not only could Kagami catch him but anyone else in the locker room could notice too.

Kagami just had a really nice body and even though it was very masculine and he had no boobs to speak of, Aomine liked looking at it. The other guys on the team had nice bodies too, of course, but he was only interested in Kagami's. He guessed it was just because it belonged to him that made it so much more appealing.

Kagami finished up and walked over to Aomine.

"Hey, do you want to hang out at my house a little? You haven't seen my new place yet and I can make us something to eat," Kagami seemed a little anxious.

Aomine stood there looking kind of dumb-founded for a moment, thinking that Kagami noticed him staring at him while changing but he seemed to be in the clear, "S-Sure…"

"Ah, great," Kagami gave a quick smile.

They both left the locker room. Kagami said that if he wanted, Aomine could just use the shower at his apartment. That was an offer he wasn't so sure he was going to take up… He was really curious about Kagami's apartment, though. He considered inviting himself over one day but decided not to be too pushy as they were still trying to mend their friendship.

They started their walk to Kagami's apartment and not much later, it started to get awkwardly quiet. They hadn't spent much time alone since Kagami had moved back to America. Sure they had gone out to eat at Maji Burger with just the two of them but they were always surrounded by other people and sometimes a few other members of the team tagged along. Aomine decided to break the awkward silence to put himself at ease.

"So… You can cook?"

"Oh, yeah. I cooked often in America since my parents came home late all the time, and of course I live by myself now so I can't depend on convenience store food, it's kind of unhealthy," Kagami seemed to be happy about the sudden presence of conversation. He was probably feeling the awkwardness of their silent trek to the apartment too.

"You must be a good cook then," Aomine said with a smirk.

"Hah, yeah, I guess so. I kind of enjoy doing it, too."

"Really? You'll make a good housewife then," Aomine laughed.

"Huh!? Shut up!" Kagami pushed Aomine; his face was redder than necessary.

 _'Damn, why is he so cute?'_ Aomine thought to himself, looking at the flustered Kagami.

This joke did lighten the mood a bit between them, though. And before they knew it they had reached Kagami's apartment.

"You can sit down on the couch and watch TV while you wait. Or you can take a shower if you want," Kagami said, setting his bag down and heading straight into the kitchen.

"I'll be fine on the couch…" Aomine wasn't very mentally prepared to be naked in Kagami's house right now, even if it was for something as innocent as a shower.

"Suit yourself," Kagami replied, washing his hands and getting all the utensils ready to cook.

Aomine turned on the TV and flipped through the channels. He glanced over to the kitchen to see Kagami opening a drawer and pulling something out, it was a blue piece of material that he proceeded to tie around his body.

 _'A-Apron!?'_ Aomine's eye's widened as Kagami tied the knot in the back like he had done it a hundred times before. _'That should be illegal! Damn you, Taiga! As if you couldn't get any cuter!'_ Aomine let out a frustrated moan.

"Are you alright?" Kagami asked, looking back to where Aomine was sitting.

"A-Ah, yeah. Just can't find anything good to watch." Close call.

"Yeah, there's nothing really good on anymore, is there?" Kagami said returning back to his cooking.

"Got that right…" Aomine took another glance at Kagami before deciding to just save himself from the torture and find a good station.

"Alright, it's ready."

Luckily, it didn't take too much longer for Kagami to finish his cooking.

Kagami walked over to the table with two plates in hand. Aomine lifted himself from the couch and joined Kagami at the table.

"I just made some fried rice with whatever leftovers I had. Sorry, I would've made something better but asking you to come here was kind of a spur of the moment thing," Kagami explained.

"No it's fine… These portions are huge," Aomine said, staring at the mound of rice on his plate.

"Really? I thought it was pretty normal," Kagami shoved a bite into his mouth.

"Maybe to you, you've always eaten way too much – I don't know where it goes…" Aomine took his first bite, "Woah, this is really good!" He was honestly shocked at how delicious it was, who knew Kagami wasn't bragging when he said he was a good cook.

"You think so? It's just fried rice though," Kagami smiled a bit, a little proud of himself either way.

"Definitely! This is probably the best fried rice I've ever had," Aomine continued to shovel it into his mouth.

"Well, I'm glad you like it that much," Kagami gave a small laugh and fiddled with the necklace around his neck.

"Hey, what is that necklace for? I've noticed you wear it all the time since last summer," Aomine wondered about the necklace Kagami started wearing the last time he saw him, but never really got to ask about it, especially since they had not really been on speaking terms over the past year. He was really curious now that he seems to still wear it all the time.

"Oh," Kagami held it out and grabbed it by the ring, "Tatsuya gave this to me."

Tatsuya… That was a name Aomine had started to forget about.

"R-Really?"

"Yeah, it was before he moved here. He has one too, it's kind of like, a sign of our friendship, I guess? Well, we're kind of more like brothers," a small smile started to creep up on Kagami's face as he stared at the ring.

Aomine couldn't help but feel extremely jealous. He cursed himself for not thinking of something like that! He and Kagami were never much of gift giving friends but now he regretted not having something like that with Kagami.

"Oh! Now you two can finally meet! Ah, we're all really busy with the Interhigh coming up but I'm sure we'll find time. He plays for Yosen. Hmm, maybe I can send him a message right now to see when he's available…" Kagami dug through his pockets for his phone.

Aomine came here in a great mood but now it had kind of soured. He didn't want to resent this Tatsuya who was obviously a good friend to Kagami, but it just seemed like while they were separated he had gotten closer to Kagami while Aomine drifted away. Kagami had often said that he was his one and only best friend but sometimes he really wondered if that was true.

While off in his own thoughts he heard a ring from Kagami's phone.

"He's free tomorrow! Daiki, do you think you'd be able to meet up?" Kagami said with a hopeful look on his face

He _was_ a little curious to finally meet this guy. And the face Kagami was making was too adorable to say no to… "Yeah, sure. I have nothing better to do."

"Great! …Ah… if you want to, I suppose you could spend the night if that would be easier for you…" Kagami's mood turned a little shy as he looked back down at his phone.

"No… That's ok, I have some stuff to do before then so uh, thanks but no thanks," No way. No way could he spend the night, he wasn't sure if his self-restraint could handle that.

"Oh, that's fine, just figured I'd ask," Kagami said with a nervous smile.

They finished up their meal with a little more small talk until Aomine announced his leave.

"Good night, it was nice to have you over finally" Kagami said by the doorway, his face a little pink.

"Same here," Aomine said with a slight grin, "I'll see you tomorrow, then."

* * *

Aomine was actually kind of nervous about meeting this Tatsuya he had heard so much about. He wasn't sure why, maybe it was because he always felt like he had to compete with him for Kagami's attention. Well, he wasn't going to let that bother him today. With a deep breath, Aomine knocked on the door to Kagami's apartment.

Moments later, the door opened.

"Ah, hey, come in. Tatsuya's here already," Kagami cleared the way for Aomine to walk in.

He walked past the threshold and right away saw someone standing by the kitchen.

"Hello! I've heard so much about you, Aomine. It's nice to finally meet you, I'm Himuro Tatsuya," Himoru gave a kind smile and held out his hand.

"Same here," Aomine reached out and shook his hand.

_'What the hell! He's friggin' beautiful!'_

Aomine kind of wanted to scream. He had never seen any pictures of Himuro before but he could've never imagined he was this good looking. Aomine considered himself handsome but now he felt really plain standing next to this guy. It seemed like Himuro kept outdoing Aomine in everything and it was getting pretty frustrating. And yeah, like Kagami said, Himuro was wearing a necklace just like his.

"We were just making something to eat for lunch," Kagami said, walking up from behind Aomine.

"I assume you've had Taiga's cooking before? Isn't he the best?" Himuro smirked at Kagami.

"It's embarrassing when you say it like that," Kagami laughed and walked into the kitchen.

"Should I help?" Aomine was already starting to feel out of place.

"No, it's alright. We're almost done," Kagami shouted back.

Aomine sulked over to the couch and watched the two cook and talk about insignificant things. Some things were in English which made Aomine feel even more like a third wheel.

 _'I guess Himuro can cook too, huh?'_ He thought to himself as Himuro seemed to be chopping something.

 _'Uhg, and he's way too touchy feely,'_ Aomine furrowed his brow.

Himuro seemed to touch Kagami on the back or shoulder what seemed like every other minute. What's worse is Kagami didn't seem to mind.

Himuro took a glance behind him and Aomine turned his head away quickly. But not fast enough for Himuro to not catch the expression Aomine was making; a smirk formed on his face.

"Hey, Taiga, can I taste that?" Himuro asked in a voice that was a little louder than he was talking with before.

"Hm? Didn't you just taste it a minute ago?" Kagami asked, completely oblivious.

"I just want to taste it again~" Himuro said with a smile.

"Fine, fine. You're going to eat it all before we get to if you keep asking though," Kagami held out a piece of the fish he had cooked.

"Thank you!" Himuro took a bite right out of Kagami's hand.

It took a lot for Aomine to not knock the entire couch over.

_' **BASTARD!** '_

"What the heck was that, Tatsuya? Eat it like a normal person," Kagami said going back to preparing the food.

"Haha, sorry, I just wanted to see what it felt like having someone feed me."

"Weirdo," Kagami laughed.

Aomine could've sworn he saw Himuro give a little wink in his direction after that. Needless to say, his first impression of Himuro was not starting off good.

Only a few minutes of aggressively ignoring the two friends in the kitchen later, the meal was ready. After all of them had sat down to their meals they ate for a while in silence with the occasional compliments about the food. Himuro then started up some small talk.

"So, how long have you been playing basketball?" Himuro asked Aomine.

"Since I was very young, before I met Kagami and before grade school even. I'm the one that introduced Kagami to it, by the way," Aomine responded smugly. _'And that's one area I beat you in,'_ he thought to himself.

"Yeah, Kagami told me that's how you two met," Himuro replied, "Ah, I bet Kagami was really cute back then." Himuro chuckled.

Aomine felt a twitch in his temple, "Hm, guess you'll never know, huh?" Aomine returned a condescending smile.

Even Kagami wasn't dense enough to not feel the tension in the air between them, which made the atmosphere kind of thick. He didn't even know how to interject or change the subject.

"That's true. At least I got to see him play during his first game in middle school, though. He seemed so nervous but I was pretty proud of him. The face he made when he won that game was pretty priceless, too," Himuro said, looking in Kagami's direction and smiling.

Kagami's cheeks started to blush from the conversation that was focused on him.

But Aomine's façade was breaking fast. "Too bad I missed that, but now we're on the same team together so I get to be by his side when he plays from now on. Too damn bad you won't be experiencing that, huh?" He really didn't care about controlling his anger anymore; Himuro was pushing his buttons a little too much.

"Daiki!" Kagami finally spoke up, putting a sudden halt to the conversation. Aomine glared over in his direction.

The room was silent for a moment and the awkwardness level had reached its peak. But the silence was quickly interrupted.

"Oh, sorry but I need to use the restroom real quickly," Himuro said, getting up from his chair. He didn't seem the least bit phased by Aomine's words as he got up and walked down the hall.

"What the HELL are you doing?!" Kagami said in an angry whisper once he made sure Himuro left the room.

"That bastard started it! Bragging about you like he knows you better than I do!" Aomine could barely maintain a whisper in his anger.

"I doubt that's what he's doing! He's just telling you about our time in America since you guys are both my friends and being friends with me and basketball are things you have in common. He's just making conversation!"

Aomine was getting even angrier because Kagami seemed to be defending Himuro instead of him. "No he's not! He's trying to act like he's better than me!"

"You sound like you're jealous or something!" Kagami hissed.

"Maybe that's because I am!" Aomine blurted out.

Whatever Kagami was planning to say next got stuck in his throat as silence swept through the room once again. On the other side, Aomine was feeling the heat of embarrassment at his confession that he sure as hell didn't plan on letting Kagami know about but let slip anyway.

"Y-You…" Kagami's face started to turn a shade of red, "You don't have to be jealous over something that stupid…"

"I'm not really jealous…" Aomine tried to play it off but his ears still burned with embarrassment.

"My relationship with you and my relationship with Himuro are different… Well, you're both my friends but Himuro is kind of like my brother. But you're…" Kagami seemed to struggle with trying to find the word to use.

 _'Isn't it 'best friend'? It's not that hard to remember, you always say it,'_ Aomine thought, watching Kagami stare at his plate.

"To me you're…" Kagami looked up at Aomine with a sort of pain looked on his face.

"Taiga…" Aomine wondered why it was so hard for Kagami to say it when he's said it more times than he could count.

"Ah, sorry about that you guys," Aomine almost jumped out of his chair when he heard a voice from behind him. He had almost forgotten that there was someone else in the apartment.

Kagami, however, seemed relieved. "Oh, it's fine," he said with nervous laughter.

"Actually, I should probably head out soon. I promised my mom I'd help her do some errands on the way back from your house. It's too bad we couldn't play some basketball together, I would've loved to see you in action, Aomine," Himuro gave him that smile he kept giving him all night.

"Yeah, I'm sure," Aomine said with clear sarcasm. He felt a foot kick his leg under the table as Kagami glared at him.

"That's fine, I'll walk you to the door," Kagami gave a serious look to Aomine that said 'you too!' and reluctantly, Aomine obeyed.

All three gathered at the door and just as Himuro was about to leave, he looked like he had just remembered something.

"Ah! I almost forgot! Taiga, that CD I let your borrow, do you think I could get it back? If it isn't any trouble."

"Oh crap, good thing you reminded me. Hold on, I'll go get."

Aomine gave a look to Kagami as if to say, 'please don't go' but with another serious look from Kagami, Aomine gave up and stayed standing by the door while Kagami went off to his room.

"I hope that helped," Himuro said in a quiet voice.

Aomine looked at him confused, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Hm, I just think you needed a push. If you don't start getting serious, someone's going to take what you want away from you right underneath your nose. I hope you know that," Himuro replied.

"What are you talking about-"

"Found it!" Kagami shouted from behind them, CD in hand.

"Thanks! I guess I'll get going, then. Once again, it was nice meeting you, Aomine. I enjoyed the dinner; I'll call you later, Taiga." Himuro waved and closed the door behind him.

Kagami heaved a huge sigh, "I didn't think you two meeting would be that hectic. I know you don't seem to like him so much right now but please just try to get along with him, okay?"

"Y-Yeah…" Aomine responded. Really, he was just preoccupied with figuring out what exactly Himuro meant a minute ago. Was that guy trying to be helpful or something? Whatever it was, Aomine wasn't so sure he'd necessarily be friends with him, but he'd at least pretend to get along with him if only for Kagami's sake.


	13. Chapter 13

Things seemed to be working out pretty great for Kagami lately. Even Momoi seemed to be more chipper to see him and Aomine getting along again. Even though their relationship seemed to have soured and almost a year of communication was lost, it didn't take long for the tension between Kagami and Aomine to dissipate.

Besides the dinner with Aomine and Himuro not going anything like how he'd hoped it would, things were looking up for Kagami. Although their relationship seemed to be back to normal, there was one little thing that seemed to nag at the back of Kagami's mind: his feelings for Aomine. It actually made Kagami kind of happy to hear that Aomine was jealous of Himuro over him. It felt a little silly, but it made him wonder if there was something else behind Aomine's jealousy and it gave him a bit of hope. He was pretty positive that his feelings for his best friend had turned into something more, but he wasn't sure if Aomine felt exactly the same way. Aomine could be like Himuro and strictly just have an attachment like a brother… But what was that thing that happened between them two summers ago? It could have been Aomine's true feelings showing, but it could also have been just a kid's curiosity. Honestly it wasn't such a big deal, but Kagami couldn't help but ruminate over the meaning of it.

Kagami still wasn't sure how he was going to figure all of this out yet, but he didn't want to concern himself too much with it considering that the prelims for the Interhigh tournament started in a couple weeks. He really had to be on his game in order to do his best. He decided not to make that the biggest issue to plague his mind.

* * *

The Touou team probably wasn't the closest team in the world, but spending so much time with each other caused some sort of camaraderie and once in a while they would go out to hit up a family restaurant or fast food joint, or just stop by the convenience store for some snacks together after practice.

And today they were doing just that – they decided to go with the convenience store route since no one really had much money on them. All together it was Kagami, Aomine, Wakamatsu, Sakurai, Momoi, and a couple other second years. Sakurai almost didn't go but Momoi convinced him to. She seemed to enjoy these outings as it reminded her of how it used to be back when the Teikou team would go out.

Out of all of the team members, besides Aomine, Kagami probably got along with Wakamatsu the most – which was kind of ironic since Wakamatsu and Aomine seemed to have a mutual dislike for each other. Kagami liked Wakamatsu for the most part especially since they, surprisingly, had a lot in common, but he got a little talkative sometimes. There was also the fact that he didn't get along with his best friend, so if Aomine ever wanted Kagami's attention and he was talking to Wakamatsu, they usually ended up in an argument with each other instead. Today, though, Aomine seemed a little more toned down and didn't seem to mind much that Kagami was mostly talking to Wakamatsu on their walk to the store.

The group had reached the convenience store and were about to go in. Kagami was in the middle of a conversation about a new video game with Wakamatsu when he heard a couple of high pitched voices calling out a familiar name.

"Ahh! Aomine-kun!" Two girls further down the street that seemed to attend the same school squealed and waved in Aomine's direction.

He walked away from the rest of the team and went over to the girls that had called out to him. They seemed to be happy that he walked over and talked excitedly when he reached them.

"Tsk, lucky bastard always has girls clawing at him," Wakamatsu grumbled, watching the girls fawn over Aomine. "Sure he's good looking, but his attitude is total junk. Guess that goes to show that a lot of girls just go for the looks."

"Hah… Yeah," Kagami responded weakly. He had seen girls talking to Aomine all the time but he could never get used to it. So far he hadn't dated any of them since he started high school, but that didn't stop them from being interested in Aomine.

"Look at him! He's talking to her boobs, not her face! No offence, Kagami, but I'm not sure how you're such good friends with him," Wakamatsu said going through the sliding doors.

"I guess when you're childhood friends it works out that way," Kagami followed him inside the store.

Kagami spent some time getting snacks to eat now and take home for later. He glanced out the window from time to time to see Aomine still talking to the two girls. Once in a while he'd see them laugh and one of the girls would do something like touch Aomine's arm. Momoi must've noticed Kagami staring because she spoke up after Kagami had looked out the window for about the 4th time.

"He's really popular with girls, huh? I really wish he'd just find a girl he liked instead of messing around…" Kagami looked over to see her standing next to him.

"Does he really mess around a lot?" Kagami asked.

"Actually, he kind of did last year but not so much since coming to Touou – which is a relief because I thought he'd go crazy with all the high school girls around. Maybe it's because you came back, Taiga! Maybe you're a good influence on him," she smiled in his direction.

Kagami gave a nervous laugh, "M-Maybe."

"Speaking of which, is there a girl you like?" Momoi asked which caught Kagami off-guard.

"N-No!" He claimed, almost shouting.

"That kind of response is really suspicious, there is someone you like, isn't there!" Momoi teased, poking at Kagami's arm.

"You're wrong, I don't… like…" Kagami tried to deny it but he was flustered and knew he was lying. It might not be a girl but there was definitely someone he liked.

"Aww, I want to know who she is to make you lose your composure like that!" Momoi giggled.

"There's no one!" Kagami collected himself and firmly stood in denial.

"Boo! You're no fun, Taiga," Momoi pouted and crossed her arms.

"Sorry, but there aren't any girls I like," at least this wasn't a lie and Kagami was more confident in saying this.

Kagami managed to escape Momoi's questioning and went up to pay for his things. He walked outside the convenience store to see that Aomine seemed to be done talking to the girls. Aomine noticed Kagami right away.

"Sorry about just walking off like that," he said, making his way up to the entrance.

"It's fine, I'm sure no one really minded. Were they… friends of yours?"

"They were just a couple girls in my class," Aomine shrugged it off like it was no big deal.

Kagami shifted the bag he was holding in his hands. "…Do you like one of them or something?" Why had he just asked that?

"What? Uh, no…" Aomine was a bit taken aback by the question, "I was just being nice and talked to them. Otherwise they probably would've run up to me and made even more of a scene than they already were making."

"O-Oh," Kagami felt a little stupid. Of course not every girl Aomine came into contact with would be someone he'd be interested in. "You like big boobs though, right? I couldn't help but notice those girls seemed to kind of show off there's," Kagami was always a little irked about Aomine's seemingly favorite female body part.

"Uh, um…" Aomine again seemed a little flustered over Kagami's question. "They're nice but it's not like that's the only thing that matters," he was a little embarrassed that Kagami of all people called him out on his interest in boobs.

"That's good, I guess you aren't that shallow," Kagami gave a weak smile.

"Of course I'm not!" Aomine's brow furrowed.

"Well, that one girl that kept touching your arm was pretty, and she seemed to like you…" Kagami was speaking these words, yet it kind of hurt to say them. He could only think about what Momoi had said in the store - about Aomine settling on one person, and a small part of him wished that person for Aomine could be him. But he also thought that maybe a girl would be the best after all, even if he really didn't want that to be true.

"She is pretty, but I don't feel anything for her," Aomine replied, "I don't feel that way for any of the girls in our school."

Kagami felt a bit of relief to hear that. That still didn't confirm any feelings Aomine may or may not have for Kagami but at least Kagami knew there weren't any girls to compete against. But he did say 'at our school', was there possibly a girl outside of school he liked? Or maybe it was time to stop over-thinking things…

Soon, everyone else had exited the store and started to chat amongst themselves. Aomine remained relatively quiet and isolated and only talked some with Momoi whenever she said something to him.

When it started getting late everyone had finished their food, one after another they started to part ways.

"I think I'm going to head out," Aomine said, not bothering to linger much longer and started walking in the direction of his house.

"Wait!" Kagami jogged after him until he caught up.

"Oh, Taiga, what is it?" Aomine seemed to give little notice to Kagami.

"Is something the matter?" Kagami knew that Aomine wasn't quite acting right the whole day.

"I guess you noticed... Just a lot has been on my mind," Aomine shrugged, "Nothing to worry about."

"Are you sure?" Kagami asked, uncertain.

Aomine glanced towards Kagami, "Yeah," he paused a moment and noticed the worried look on Kagami's face.

He pretty much promised Kagami that he wouldn't hold back things from him anymore. This wasn't a very a significant issue, but that also meant it wouldn't hurt to let Kagami know what was on his mind.

"I've just been thinking about that dinner the other day," he admitted.

"Oh. Yeah, I hoped that you and Tatsuya would've gotten along better," Kagami sighed.

"I think maybe I was just, uh, being a little too clingy to you," Aomine scratched the back of his head. "So I thought maybe I shouldn't get so uptight when other people talk to you. So that's why I didn't really say anything to you today when you were talking with Wakamatsu and the others."

"That's why?" Kagami gave a stifled laugh, "And what do you mean by clingy?"

"Just… I don't know, I get really defensive with the people around you sometimes," Aomine's embarrassment started to show on his face as he continued to avoid eye contact with Kagami.

"You kind of do," Kagami said quietly, "But you've pretty much always been like that so I guess I never really thought about it."

"Really? I guess I have always done that," Aomine's mood felt a little better after hearing it from Kagami.

"Yeah, except I wish you'd give Tatsuya another chance," Kagami smiled.

"Well, if he doesn't provoke me like last time, maybe I'll consider it," Aomine grumbled, Kagami just laughed at his response.

* * *

After his shower and a bit of relaxing with some TV, Kagami lay in his bed wide awake with a thousand things running through his mind – specifically about what Aomine told him today. Kagami felt a little selfish that he was happy about Aomine being possessive about their relationship. He actually liked that Aomine didn't want to other people to have what they had. Kagami could just feel that his feelings were being confirmed day after day and he didn't really know how to handle them all that well.

He stared at the glow from his phone screen, wondering if he should make a call. It wasn't so late that most high schoolers would be asleep so it should be ok, right? Making a decision, he scrolled through his contacts and hit the call button. After a few rings the other line picked up.

"Hey, Taiga, what's up? It's getting a little late," Himuro voice spoke over the receiver.

"Sorry, I just kind of wanted to talk to you about something."

There was a bit of a pause.

"Its fine, I told you that you could call whenever if you needed anything, remember? Anyway, what did you need to talk about?" Himuro's voice sounded a little tired but he seemed to be happy to hear from Kagami.

"This might sound kind of weird but," Kagami hesitated, "How do you know if someone likes you?"

Himuro gave a short laugh, "Is there a girl bullying you at school?"

"I'm being serious!" Kagami raised his voice. This was an embarrassing question for him; he didn't want to be made fun of!

"Haha, sorry, sorry, I was just teasing," Himuro apologized. "Well, it's different for a lot of people, right? Some people make it blatantly obvious – some people just watch from afar and don't say a word."

"W-What if they're really protective of you?" Kagami could feel his ears getting hot and was glad at that moment that he was on the phone instead of face to face.

"Hmm, that could be one sign. But I can't be too sure unless I actually see it for myself."

"Oh, really?" Kagami didn't think he was going to get his answer the way this was going.

"But I think the fact that someone is protective of you definitely shows they have some sort of strong feelings towards you," Himuro continued, "You usually protect something that's important to you, right?"

"That's true," Kagami replied. He felt like that was a better answer than none but he still couldn't be completely sure. After all, they had been friends for years so of course he and Aomine were important to each other.

"Anyway, this shouldn't be something that keeps you up at night. Don't worry about it; if they like you enough they'll eventually make a move."

"I never said I wanted that!" Kagami said in his defense.

Himuro laughed, "Right! Well, I'm not sure what else to say about it, though. If you're really dying to know, you could just confront the person yourself."

"N-No way…" Kagami mumbled.

"Then you'll just have to wait then! Well, Taiga, I'm going to head to bed unless there's more things you need to talk about?"

"No, that was it. Thanks for hearing me out," Kagami felt himself finally feeling tired even if questions still wracked his brain.

"Alright then, good night."

"Good night."

Kagami hung up the phone and placed it on the night stand beside his bed. He felt a little silly for impulsively calling up Himuro for a question like that, but luckily he wasn't one to judge for things like that even if he joked around about it.

* * *

The next day Kagami tried to not let any of his uncertain thoughts get to him and acted like he normally did around Aomine. They often had lunch together, usually with Momoi unless she ate with some of her other friends, which she seemed to be doing more often lately. It was nice to have lunch with just the two of them sometimes. It started off a little awkward when they had first started to talk again but now it was a lot more comfortable. Today, they ate in the gym since lately it had been hot outside, Kagami had made lunch for both him and Aomine. Sometimes he'd be in the mood to make lunch and he'd often bring one for Aomine too.

"Ahh, the stuff you cook is the best, Taiga; he even has you beat, Sakurai," Aomine said through a mouth full of food.

"S-Sorry…" Sakurai mumbled, picking at his rather cutely made bento he made for himself.

"You're stuff is still really great, though. I hope you make those honey lemons whenever the tournament starts," Kagami added to cheer Sakurai up a bit.

"I… I will," he replied with a slight smile.

Later that day, Kagami and Aomine met up after school to walk to Kagami's apartment. Aomine started coming over often since Kagami lived by himself and it was a lot more relaxing atmosphere without parents around – but mostly because he could spend some alone time with Kagami. There was a basketball court near the apartments so often they would go there to play a couple games, but sometimes they'd just hang out indoors and watch TV or play video games.

The heat made it one of those lazy days so the two decided to stay indoors and watch an NBA game Kagami had recorded. It was nice to just watch a game on TV and discuss it with someone else who was passionate about the sport. It was just them, the couch, and a few of the leftover snacks Kagami had from the convenience store.

"Remember when we'd always used to do this?" Kagami reminisced during the half-time commercial break. Even though it was recorded, commercials gave opportunity to start up conversation.

"Oh yeah, all the time," Aomine gave a short laugh. "I think it was the most entertaining when we'd be rooting for opposite teams."

"Haha, those were always the best! We'd argue like crazy," Kagami grinned and remembered that their arguments would often get them in trouble for being too loud. "It's really great to be able to do that stuff again with you, too. I missed it a lot," Kagami turned his head to face Aomine.

"Yeah, definitely, me too," Aomine gave a warm smile. He lifted his arm behind Kagami thinking of giving Kagami one of those over-the-shoulder hugs but stopped himself and instead rested his arm on the back of the couch. It felt awkward to remove it after just putting it there so he decided to just sit in that position for a while. He was feeling pretty aware now that his arm was on the couch around Kagami but the man in question didn't seem to notice since Aomine wasn't necessarily making any physical contact. Plus, the game had started back up again.

Aomine couldn't really bring himself to concentrate on the game any longer as he was now completely focused on his position; mostly because Kagami's hair had started to brush up against his arm. He kept making quick side-glances over at Kagami but his attention was still all focused on the TV.

So this gave Aomine a little idea – what if he touched him? It might not be a smart move, but he could blame it on something stupid like trying to get comfortable and the touch would've been an accident. Yeah, that sounded good…

Aomine gently moved his hand towards Kagami shoulder. Part of his hand lightly settled on top of his shoulder and Aomine waited for a reaction. Kagami seemed to have noticed but only showed it in his face slightly as he didn't make any effort to move Aomine's arm off of him. As the game went on, Aomine thought to be a little more daring and moved the rest of his hand on Kagami's shoulder. Aomine's arm was now touching the back of Kagami's neck and he showed a more obvious reaction but still kept his eyes on the TV. He still did not make any kind of effort to remove Aomine's arm, but Aomine could have sworn he saw Kagami's ears starting to turn a little pink. He wanted nothing more than to just bring Kagami into a full-out embrace, but even he knew that was going a little overboard. He was enjoying what he managed to get now and he wasn't going to mess it up.

Both of their minds seemed to not be preoccupied with the game on TV anymore, and they were both highly aware of each other at this point. It was more awkward than anything, but Aomine couldn't do much about it since he already put himself in this position. The only thing he could do was see what would happen next – or try something else. Kagami shifted a bit. Maybe he was uncomfortable but he was choosing not to say anything, Aomine thought. He felt kind of bad for putting Kagami, once again, in a situation that made him uncomfortable and silently cursed to in his head for thinking only of himself.

Kagami shifted again and slowly settled his head on Aomine's shoulder.

"I'm kind of tired all of a sudden…" Kagami said in a quiet voice.

Aomine was kind of shocked but didn't move as Kagami remained in place, resting on his shoulder. This was the last thing he expected Kagami do after making such a bold move on him.

"Should I leave?" Aomine asked even though he definitely did not want to leave at this point.

"No, this is fine for now," Kagami answered in a calm voice.

Aomine couldn't see Kagami's face but he could see that his ear had now turned about as red as his hair.

"Alright," Aomine replied in a soft voice. His hand that had been on Kagami's opposite shoulder gripped tighter. He slowly rubbed Kagami's arm as if to comfort him.

Aomine could feel Kagami's warmth and his slowly steady breaths against him. His hair rubbed against his neck and kind of tickled but he didn't mind. It felt good to have this kind of contact with Kagami. Really, not since they had been young had he felt Kagami's warmth like this.

 _'Damn, I really love him, huh?'_ Aomine already knew his feelings were real but the happiness he was feeling now just reaffirmed it all. He wanted to be able to do this with Kagami all the time. He wanted it to do this as more than just a friend lending his shoulder. He wanted to be able to comfort Kagami when he was feeling down or just had a tiring day.

The game went completely ignored for those few minutes until a ringing made Kagami jump from his position on Aomine's shoulder. He looked a little frazzled and it seemed like he really might've been dozing off. Kagami grabbed his phone from his pocket and answered.

"Hey, Tatsuya," he lifted himself off the couch.

Aomine didn't move an inch for a moment until what just happened hit him.

 _'Himuro…'_ Again with this guy getting in his way with Kagami. Did he have some kind of hidden camera around here? Was he out to just sabotage Aomine?

"Don't call me for something like that!" After a few minutes of conversation, Kagami shouted from the kitchen and hung up his phone right after the outburst. "Sorry…" Kagami walked back over to the couch.

Aomine stood up, "It's fine, I should probably get going anyway, you look kind of exhausted."

"Oh, yeah… Sorry about almost falling asleep on you, I didn't get much sleep last night," Kagami rubbed the back of his neck.

"I didn't mind that at all."

"That's good then," Kagami seemed a little happy. "Hey, before you leave, I wanted to ask you if we could start meeting up at the gym before practice until the Interhigh prelims start so we can get a little extra practice in."

A year ago, Aomine wouldn't have been much of a fan of that idea but he was starting to enjoy practice lately – even if it was mostly due to the fact that Kagami was there.

"That sounds good," he replied, it was more time with Kagami so he wasn't going to pass that up.

Leaving the apartment was hard since Aomine wanted nothing more than to return to the couch and hold Kagami longer. He knew he was just plain getting sappy at this point but it was the truth. At least he could take what just happened with a grain of salt and leave with knowing the fact that Kagami was comfortable with he and Aomine being that intimate with each other. If anything, it was a good sign, and Aomine couldn't help but smile a bit as he closed the door behind him.


	14. Chapter 14

Kagami was happiest whenever he was with Aomine, he had to admit. But he couldn't stop thinking about the other day at his apartment. Kagami wasn't sure exactly what Aomine had in mind when he had his arm around him. Although it was kind of awkward, Kagami actually liked Aomine touching him. He really was tired, but mostly it was just an excuse to rest his head on Aomine's shoulder. It was a relief when Aomine didn't protest. Leaning on Aomine and his hand rubbing Kagami's shoulder felt very comforting, and Kagami thought he would actually fall asleep like that. He even wished he had moved himself closer to get more comfortable. Kagami was really considering it until his phone rang and nearly made him jump off the couch. After the initial shock, he checked to see who it was and it was none other than Himuro. Kagami silently cursed him for interrupting him and Aomine before answering the phone.

"Hey, Tatsuya," he got off the couch and walked towards the kitchen, leaving Aomine by himself.

"How are you doing?" He asked in a kind voice.

"I'm fine… I was kind of in the middle of something," Kagami couldn't help but show a little bit of his bitterness.

"Oh? I'm sorry, should I call back?"

"Well, unless you called for something important?" Himuro didn't call too often so it might've been something he needed to tell Kagami.

"Oh, I just wanted to see how you and the person you like are doing," Himuro said with a small laugh.

Kagami felt his face heat up and wanted to yell at Himuro that: in fact, he had just ruined a moment he was having with that exact person now. But instead he shouted, "Don't call me for something like that!" and hung up in his anger, Himuro still laughing at the other end. Sometimes Kagami felt like Himuro did some things on purpose just to tease him.

That was about a week ago and Kagami was still thinking about that day. If Himuro didn't call, what would've happened? Probably not much else, but he couldn't help but wonder.

After classes were over for the day, Kagami headed straight to the gym before practice. He and Aomine had been meeting up early at the gym for the past week to get a little extra practice in for the upcoming Interhigh preliminaries. Kagami was glad that Aomine didn't seem to skip out on practice that much lately, it seemed like a good sign that Aomine's passion for basketball was returning. He definitely seemed to have more fun whenever he played, and having a real game will probably be even better.

He was still mulling over that day as he walked through the hallway. He managed to not let it bother him much but today he just couldn't get it out of his head. Probably because the lessons today were especially boring and he didn't feel like paying much attention to them.

"Um, excuse me…" Kagami was about to open the door to exit the building when he heard a quiet voice from behind him that snapped him out of his thoughts.

Kagami turned around to see one of his classmates, fidgeting with the hem of her blouse. She was in the same class as him but sat on the other side of the room. She was usuallt really quiet so he wasn't sure why she was trying to talk to him right now. They had worked on a project together once in assigned groups and she barely talked during the whole thing.

"Oh, hey. Is there something you need?" Kagami asked.

"Um, Kagami-kun, do you mind if we talk outside?" she said meekly, not quite making eye contact with him.

"Sure…" Kagami said slowly.

He couldn't even begin to guess what she wanted but he followed her outside anyway. They walked around the building until she came to a halt where there seemed to be no one around.

"Uh, is there something you need behind the building…?" He asked confused.

The girl took a deep breath and dug through the pockets of her uniform and took out a folded piece of pink paper.

"P-Please take this!" She said in one quick breath, holding out the paper to him and staring at the ground.

Kagami took the paper, still unsure about what was going on and started to unfold it to see what was inside.

"Please don't read it right now!" She squeaked and Kagami stopped immediately. "I-I have to go, read it later, okay?" She finally lifted up her face and Kagami saw that she was bright red. She turned and quickly left Kagami by himself.

Kagami made sure she was out of eyesight and continued to unfold the paper. He read it over and he suddenly understood what that strange ordeal was all about.

 _'I didn't think something like that would happen,'_  he thought to himself. He sighed and stuck it in his bag and made his way to the gym.

* * *

Aomine was on his way to meet up with Kagami before practice. He got out of his class a little early so he figured he'd drop by Kagami's classroom to walk with him to the gym today. He wondered if Kagami would act all coy and say something along the lines of 'I didn't need you to come pick me up!' Aomine snickered to himself, picturing the face Kagami would make.

Walking outside, he saw Kagami who he was about to call out to until he saw that he was walking with a girl. Aomine stopped and watched the two round the corner of the building. His curiosity got the best of him, and Kagami should've been walking towards the gym in the opposite direction, so he followed the pair, trying to go unnoticed.

Aomine stood by the corner where they had just turned and tried to listen in on their conversation.

"Please take this!" He heard the girl say and Aomine peeked around the corner to see her holding out a pink piece of paper towards Kagami.

This was a scene Aomine was all too familiar with. The countless girls he dated in middle school had all done similar things to him when they asked him out. Kagami just got confessed to by that girl! Aomine wanted nothing more to jump in, snatch the letter, and rip it to shreds right in front of them but realized that obviously was not a rational option and ended his eavesdropping at that and left for the gym.

 _'I'll just confront Kagami about it when he gets to the gym,'_  he thought to himself.

Aomine reached the gym and headed straight into the locker room and started getting ready. He had just finished changing his clothes when Kagami walked through the locker room door.

"Hey, that took a while, did something happen?" Aomine asked, knowing full well what the answer to that question was.

"Ah…" Kagami hesitated, "No, not really. Just had to stay and finish up some work a couple minutes after class." Kagami set his bag down on the bench and began to take his clothes out to change.

 _'Liar,'_  Aomine thought to himself.

"Hey, I'm going to head to the bathroom so you go ahead and I'll meet you out in the gym, alright?" Kagami said walking towards the stalls.

"Sure," Aomine replied and waited for Kagami to be out of sight before digging through his bag. This was definitely an invasion of privacy but Aomine didn't care. With girls who confessed with letters, they usually set up a time and place for the reply, and damn if Aomine was not going to find out that information exactly.

 _'Found it!'_   He spotted a shade of pink in one of the bag's side pockets and quickly opened it up to read it.

'I like you, Kagami Taiga. Will you go out with me? I will be waiting outside after your first game. Ps. Good luck!'

Just like Aomine thought, she arranged a place for a response to her confession. Aomine quickly stuck the letter back just how he found it and walked out of the locker room into the gym.

He had this information, so now how was he going to deal with it?

* * *

"Hey, Taiga, how about we go do something after the game today?" Aomine leaned over the bus seat to ask Kagami who was sitting in front of him.

The team was on their way to the first game of Interhigh preliminaries, they were beyond confident that they would easily pass through the preliminaries and make it to the finals. But that did not mean they didn't plan to perform their best for their game today.

"Hmm? Ah, I'm not so sure…" Kagami said nervously, side glancing in Aomine's direction.

"Why not?" Aomine knew why but he wished that wasn't the reason.

"Umm… I just have something to do…" Kagami mumbled and turned away.

"Like what? Can't it wait until later?" Aomine persisted.

He still hadn't come up with a way to keep Kagami from meeting up with that girl. He figured he might be worrying for nothing; Kagami never showed any signs of liking anyone, but what if he decided to try going out with this girl after all? Aomine didn't want that but it's not like he could just say 'don't go out with that girl' because then there would be the issue of admitting how he found out. Confessing that he eavesdropped on their conversation and that he dug through Kagami's bag may not result in a positive reaction.

"I… I just… have to do this today, okay?" Kagami stumbled over his words.

"Why today?" Aomine nagged further.

"God, leave him alone, Aomine!" Wakamatsu, who was sitting next to Kagami, spoke up. "He doesn't need you bothering him constantly."

"Hey, how about you mind your own damn business?" Growled Aomine, throwing a glare in Wakamatsu's direction.

Kagami was about to interject until Imayoshi spoke up.

"How about all of you shut up? It's only a matter of hours until the game starts and you should be thinking about your plays and focusing on winning instead of planning your little play dates afterwards."

Aomine sunk into his seat with an annoyed 'hmph' and Wakamatsu obeyed similarly. Kagami just sighed and put his hand on his forehead.

Not much later, the team had arrived. It was a little exciting to finally be playing at their first official game today. Even Aomine felt a little thrill to be able to finally play a real game again. Not only was it that, but he could finally play an official game with Kagami by his side. Since that day when they were young and promised to play on the same team, he had waited for this moment. But he couldn't help but not feel completely happy since in the back of his mind, all he could think about was Kagami going to meet up with that girl after the game. He tried his hardest to ignore the nagging feeling as to not have it bother him when all he needed was to concentrate right now.

* * *

In a staggering win of 101 – 39, Touou dominated the game. Kagami got subbed in for Wakamatsu during the second half and that's when the combination of his and Aomine's basketball secured a promising defeat.

It felt so good to be under the bright lights of the stadium, surrounded by a crowd and his team and most of all, be playing right beside Kagami. This is what he thought he had lost, Aomine thought. The passion for basketball that he thought might've been gone forever was now back. Aomine thought about what it would've been like if Kagami had chosen a different school, what would it have felt like to actually play  _against_  him? But it didn't really matter right now; he was the happiest with Kagami close to him – being close with the Kagami that was now smiling like an idiot over his first win of the season.

Kagami shouted in victory and gave Aomine a tight hug, "We did it, Daiki," he said, barely audible over the crowd's applause.

"Yeah, we did it," Aomine replied, hugging him back. He could never get tired of this, he thought. He wanted to keep winning to feel this happiness again. He wanted to win every single game after this.

But the euphoria came to an almost screeching halt. After the speech in the locker room from the coach and a warm down, Kagami slipped out quietly. He seemed to go unnoticed by everyone except Aomine who had been keeping an eye on him ever since they had got into the locker room. Aomine excused himself and said he was going to the bathroom, with Imayoshi replying 'don't take too long' and went after Kagami. Aomine had to stop him, he was in denial about Kagami actually going out to meet with that girl, but him sneaking out to do just that confirmed all his fears.

Kagami stepped outside and clearly looked like he was searching for someone. By that time Aomine had caught up with him.

"Taiga!" Aomine shouted and Kagami jumped in surprise, turning around to look behind him.

"Wh… Daiki?" Kagami asked confused, "What are you doing?"

"What are YOU doing!?" Aomine asked, out of breath. He had just played a game of basketball but he was definitely never this out of breath before, and it was just from chasing after Kagami.

"I… I told you I had to do something! Why did you follow me?" Kagami looked away and searched around the area again.

Aomine's mind was in a haze, he had to do something. Now. Even if it was something irrational. He grabbed Kagami by the wrist tightly.

"Ow! Wh-"

"Don't go," Aomine said in a resilient voice, "Please, don't go," his voice waivered a bit the second time.

"What has gotten into you!?" Kagami tried pulling his arm away from Aomine but he strengthened his grip.

"Please, Taiga. Please don't go and meet up with that girl," Aomine pleaded.

Kagami's eyes widened, "H-How do you know…" Kagami's ears started to turn red.

"I saw you with her, and I read the letter," Aomine confessed. He wanted to avoid admitting to that, but his desperation won over. He would do whatever it took to prevent Kagami from going to talk to her.

"You… You went through my stuff?"

"Yes, so don't go!" Aomine pulled on Kagami's arm, but Kagami remained rooted in place.

"Why? Give me a good reason why? And why did you listen in on us and go through my bag?" Kagami started getting angry.

Aomine sighed deeply and gripped Kagami's hand. "I…" Aomine exhaled another long breath. Finding his resolve, he spoke again, "I'm ready to tell you why," he said firmly. "Why I ignored you for a year, and why I acted so strangely, and why I wanted to end our friendship."

Kagami's expression softened, "Really?" he asked quietly.

Aomine nodded. "I'll tell you everything."


	15. Chapter 15

"W-Wait… What does this have to do with what's happening right now?" Kagami wanted nothing more than to hear Aomine finally explain himself, but there was something he needed to tend to first.

"Because! I can't let you date that girl! At least not until you've heard what I have to say…" Aomine continued to hold on to Kagami's wrist. He averted his eyes away from Kagami's.

"Huh!?" Kagami stepped back in shock. "I'm not going to date her!"

Aomine's head snapped back to look Kagami in the face, "What? But aren't you going to meet up with her?"

"Yeah! To give her my response! I'm going to turn her down!" Kagami replied, finally escaping Aomine's grip that had loosened in his surprise.

"I… I didn't… think about that option…" Aomine mumbled, extremely embarrassed with himself at the moment.

Kagami sighed and started to walk off, "I really need to find her now. Just because I'm going to reject her confession doesn't mean I have to be rude about it. So we'll talk later, ok? Don't you forget that you've agreed to tell me  _everything_."

Aomine was too ashamed of himself to fight back much and let Kagami go look for the girl. He felt so stupid of not thinking that there was a possibility that Kagami would reject her. He was too busy worrying about something that wasn't even worth worrying over. Maybe this really was the right time to let Kagami know everything – he needed to man up. No more lying to himself, he had done that for years and all it's done has caused nothing but pain for both him and Kagami. If Kagami was going to reject him, he'd just have to deal with it. This charade he's put on has to come to an end.

Meanwhile, Kagami went to search for the girl to settle everything. He really did feel bad for what he was about to do, but it was worse to go out with her with no feelings at all – that would only end in disaster and even more of a broken heart.

He walked around to the main entrance and saw her waiting, looking very anxious. With a huge sigh, Kagami prepared himself and walked up to her. She seemed to notice almost right away since she seemed to be searching for him and smiled as he approached.

"Kagami-kun! You did so well in your game… congratulations," she said meekly but in a cheerful voice. She seemed to have dressed nicely for the occasion.

"Th-Thanks," Kagami gave a half smile and scratched the back of his head. This was going to be harder than he thought.

"I'm so glad you came… I was starting to worry," she scuffed her shoe across the pavement in nervousness. "Um, so since you're here I'm assuming you've read my letter?" The girl asked anxiously.

"Yeah, actually, about that…" Kagami tried to find the right words to let her down easily, "About your confession… I'm sorry; I don't think I can accept your feelings…"

The girl's face visibly dropped and it kind of sent a bit of pain straight to Kagami's chest.

"I just don't want to lead you on, you know? If I said yes without having any feelings behind it at all, I'd just end up hurting you even more, and I don't want that…"

It was silent between the two for a moment. The girl had focused her attention on the ground below, but after a while she lifted her head.

She gave a tearful smile, "You're still so nice Kagami-kun… Even when you're turning me down," she wiped at her eyes that were starting to water.

"Still, I'm really sorry," Kagami felt like comforting her in some way but he thought that might just give her some kind of false hope.

"Do you mind if I ask… why? Is there someone else Kagami-kun likes?"

Kagami instantly thought of Aomine when she asked and felt his face getting hot.

"I- Uh…" Kagami stumbled over his words and made some kind of weird gesture with his hands which he suddenly didn't know what to do with anymore. He really did like Aomine, didn't he? There was no uncertainty anymore; that was the person he had fallen for. He cleared his throat before continuing, "Yeah… Yeah I do have someone I like."

The girl giggled, "She must be special to make you act like that."

 _'Even though it's not a girl,'_  Kagami thought. "Yeah, they really are special… They make me really happy…" he couldn't help but smile when he finally admitted out loud his true feelings.

"I'm glad… I hope you can be with her one day," the girl smiled again even though a tear ran down her cheeks, "She may not be me, but somehow I feel happy that you have someone like that. I hope I find a person like that too."

"I'm sure you will," Kagami felt relieved over so many things at that moment.

He bid the girl goodbye with a wave and walked back towards the locker rooms. Aomine was still outside the entrance when he arrived.

"So?" Aomine asked.

"It went well, she cried a little but in the end I think she was fine," Kagami replied.

"Damn, you heartbreaker," Aomine laughed as he gave Kagami a jab on the arm. Kagami just laughed and gave a jab back as they walked back inside.

Only a matter of seconds later, they saw Imayoshi walking down the hall looking a little frazzled.

"Where the hell have you two been!? The bus is leaving, NOW!" he shouted.

Both Kagami and Aomine winced at the loud voice and obeyed their captain by running as quickly as they could to the bus.

* * *

The bus ride back was quite silent. The team was happy they won but there were many more games to come and they were ready to rest up for the remainder of the tournament.

Aomine and Kagami had agreed to go over to Kagami's house to have their discussion. He was kind of beat, but Kagami wanted to hear what Aomine had to say as soon as he could.

But needless to say, their walk to his apartment had little conversation. Kagami unlocked the door and stepped into his apartment, Aomine right behind him. They both seemed really on edge and the awkwardness in the atmosphere was stifling.

"Do you want something to drink? Or eat?" Kagami tried his hardest to cut through the tension. He started to walk towards the kitchen.

"N-No I'm fine," Aomine replied. He exhaled a deep breath, "Taiga, I think I should just start explaining." Aomine finally had the opportunity to let everything off his chest; he didn't want to waste another second and just wanted to get it over with.

Kagami froze in place and turned around to face Aomine. "Alright, let's sit down then…"

They both headed over to the couch in the living room, really, the only seat in the apartment besides at the table where he ate. They had to awkwardly sit themselves on the couch in order to face each other for a proper conversation. Aomine seemed like he was about ready to start talking before Kagami spoke up.

"Hey, just, before you start," Kagami gave a meek smile, "Thanks for talking with me. I know whatever you were going through was probably rough but I'm glad we got through it regardless."

Aomine gave a nod and smiled back and started his explanation.

"It probably started towards my second year of middle school; I already explained that part to you when it was happening. There also were other things bothering me at the same time I never told you about – but I'll get to that later, don't worry. During my third year, things just didn't seem to get better. Tetsu quit and the rest of the team seemed to isolate themselves from each other; I'm just as guilty as them, though. Hell, I was probably the first one to do it. It's just… I feel like I actually started to hate basketball," Aomine paused for a moment.

Kagami's face was already looking a little concerned, especially with the last bit Aomine said. He knew that Aomine was starting to lose his spark for basketball, but 'hate'? He couldn't have even imagined Aomine saying something even close to that.

"I just felt like it wasn't worth doing anymore," Aomine continued, "There was no one I was surrounded by who seemed to care about basketball other than winning, including myself. Well, except for Tetsu. Hah, he tried so hard to help me – and now, after the fact, I feel bad for blowing him off. Now that I think about it, he really cared about me, didn't he?"

"Of course he did and he still does! You two are friends!" Kagami interjected. He knew full and well that Kuroko was always worried about Aomine since Kuroko always updated him about the situation.

"Yeah I know. I don't blame him for quitting the team and giving up on me, though. I would've done the same thing," Aomine sighed. "Well, here comes the next part. A lot of the times, I just missed you so much…" Aomine could already feel his face getting hot and he broke eye contact with Kagami. "Right now I'm starting to enjoy basketball again. But back then, I just wished there was someone there who was as passionate about basketball as I was to confirm that basketball wasn't just about winning, that it was fun again… Tetsu tried to pull me back in, and he definitely loved basketball but I guess I was too stubborn to take his words seriously. And then I'd think about you and just really wish you were there so badly. N-Not that I'm trying to blame you for not being there or anything… I was just being selfish…" Aomine ran his hand through his hair.

He really couldn't believe he was pouring his heart out like this; something he NEVER did but here he was making an embarrassment of himself. He finally looked in Kagami's direction to see his face had reddened as well. He was looking down at his hands that were resting in his lap.

"I-It's okay, I know you aren't trying to blame me for anything," he responded. "But, what does this have to do with you avoiding me? I know your probably thought I would've gotten frustrated with you having a falling out with basketball, and you probably didn't want to worry me, but I still don't think that's a good enough excuse," Kagami seemed to be pouting.

"I'm… about to get to that…" Aomine said quietly. "Before I do, promise you won't hate me for what I'm about to say?"

Kagami made a confused face, "How could I hate you… Did you do something really bad?"

"No! It's just… depending on how this goes you may never want to speak to me ever again," Aomine gave a nervous laugh. Kagami was probably going to have to make his second denial of a confession for the night; Aomine just hoped he would let him down as gently as he did that girl earlier.

"I don't think there are many things you could do to make me hate you. You ignored me for an entire year and wanted to call off our friendship and I still didn't hate you," Kagami reminded him.

"Right…" That was most definitely true. Kagami was almost too good of a friend; he always forgave Aomine even when he didn't deserve it. If Kagami was going to harshly tell him he was disgusting after the confession and demand he leave the apartment and never talk to him again, well, frankly, he'd probably deserve it. But Aomine found his resolve anyway, he was going to do this and he'd deal with the outcome when he got there.

"Taiga," he said in a more serious tone, "Ever since we were young, I felt like we had a really special bond. I've always thought that if there was one thing I did right, it was becoming your friend."

Kagami smiled, "Me too…" he said quietly.

"At one point, I realized that I possibly had feelings for you that went beyond friendship…" Aomine saw Kagami's eyes widen. He really wanted to go into panic mode but he continued on. "At first, I couldn't really understand what it was so I just figured we had this… special kind of friendship. But then I realized my eyes were always following you and I wanted our relationship to be something more. I felt that it was dangerous for our friendship so I tried to suppress it but I couldn't. I tried so many things but it didn't work. I dated so many girls just to get you out of my mind but all I could think about is how much I wished they were you. I stopped answering your calls because talking to you made me fall for you even more," Aomine was quickly losing his controlled composure.

All of the things he had been dying to say were coming out of him like a waterfall, all the while Kagami just looked on with a face of shock. Or maybe it was disgust. Either way it looked like he was too surprised to say anything back and just continued to watch Aomine ramble on.

"I avoided you for a year because… I wanted to cut all contact with you until I got over you. But it never happened and before I knew it, you were coming back to Japan and I still hadn't gotten over you! In fact, I think my feelings only got stronger," Aomine exhaled a deep breath; he could feel his eyes starting to water. "Taiga… I love you. I've loved you for so long..."

It felt like the biggest weight had lifted off of Aomine's chest at that moment. His feelings he had denied and suppressed for so many years were finally spoken to the person in question and an instant wave of relief washed over him.

Kagami still had a look of shock on his face. Aomine prepared himself for Kagami's reaction – a harsh rejection, a hard shove, something. But what he didn't expect was a tight embrace. Kagami had lunged himself forward and clung tightly to Aomine's body. Aomine just sat there frozen, not completely believing what was happening at the moment.

"Idiot," Kagami's said, his voice muffled by Aomine's shoulder. Kagami lifted his head and looked Aomine straight in the eyes, placing both of his hands on Aomine's shoulders. "Idiot!" he said louder, "How could I hate you for that… And how could you hurt yourself for that long?"

"I… Uh…" Aomine was now the one with the shocked expression as he struggled to regain his ability to speak. Kagami waited patiently for the incoherent Aomine to actually say something that made sense. "I thought you definitely didn't feel the same way…" He said quietly.

"How could you know when you never asked?" Kagami's ears were red but he had a serious look on his face.

Kagami couldn't believe what Aomine said. He was never really sure if Aomine had any romantic feelings for him but his question was finally answered and he didn't even have to ask it. In fact, he was shocked to find out Aomine had felt that way this whole time; he was even the one to confess. Honestly it was a moment of relief but it felt kind of scary at the same time. Their feelings were mutual, but what was next? He considered things like the social stigma of two men going out, but why should other people's opinions control his feelings? Especially when he knew his feelings were real. Plus there was the fact that Kagami never dated before. He never really had time to consider going out with anyone and honestly, wasn't too interested. In fact, the first person he really ever had feelings for was Aomine.

There were a few moments of silence and Kagami spoke up again, "Hey, remember that time at the fireworks when we almost kissed?"

"Yeah, sorry about that…" Aomine had always been embarrassed about that time.

"...We could try again…" Kagami said softly, now his whole face seemed to be red.

Aomine's expression softened as he looked at Kagami's face. Was this really happening? He didn't get punched out and was dreaming all of this, right? Was Kagami really accepting him? Either way, he wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to kiss Kagami – and for real this time.

Aomine reached up to Kagami's hair and brushed a few strands away from his face. Kagami's eyes were already closing and it seemed like this time he wasn't going to resist. Aomine's heartbeat was already beating like crazy as he slowly leaned in, getting closer and closer to Kagami's face until their lips met.

It felt so good. Aomine really couldn't find the words to describe how it felt other than that. For years he could only dream of what Kagami's lips felt like and now he was experiencing it and it was better than he could've imagined. They were softer than he thought they would be. He didn't want to separate from him, but after a few seconds their lips parted and Kagami slowly opened his eyes.

"So..?" Aomine asked nervously, waiting for Kagami's reaction.

"I think… I think we should do it again," he said in a quiet voice.

Aomine gave a small laugh, "Alright," he whispered and their lips met once again.

Their lips lingered longer as they pressed their lips together a second time. Aomine separated his lips briefly to go into a deeper kiss that Kagami willingly received. Aomine's hand slowly reached up to the side of Kagami's face as Kagami slowly leaned back until Aomine was on top of him on the couch. Both of their breaths quickened as Aomine gently licked at Kagami's lips. He seemed to have gotten the hint right away and Kagami separated his lips slightly to allow Aomine's tongue to slip inside. Aomine's tongue moved around the inside of Kagami's mouth, lapping Kagami's own tongue and sucking it gently. Kagami's hands reached around Aomine and placed his arms around his broad back.

Aomine was in pure bliss to finally be doing this with the love he had for so long. He moved his hand down to the side of Kagami's neck and finally separated from their long kiss. Kagami gave a sigh as their lips parted. His eyes were watery and hazy and it drove Aomine crazy to see this side of Kagami he had never seen before.

"Taiga…" Aomine whispered in a soft voice as he slowly kissed his way from Kagami's lips down to the other side of his neck.

Kagami was obviously used to Aomine calling him by his first name but something in his voice while saying his name this time sent a wave of heat through his body. He didn't want Aomine to stop and doing this felt really good. Being with Aomine like this felt right and only further confirmed that their feelings for each other were genuine.

Aomine reached Kagami's collar bone, sucking and nibbling at the sensitive area. Kagami gave a soft moan as Aomine continued to concentrate on the spot. Aomine's hands started to wander over Kagami's body and reached the bottom of his shirt which he slowly started to lift up. This was surreal, it must be a dream. Aomine felt himself getting excited and his heart was beating insanely fast.

"Daiki," Kagami said in a breathless voice.

Aomine's hand started to work his way under the shirt.

"Daiki," Kagami said in a louder voice, Aomine's hand continued to move.

"Daiki," Kagami said in a firmer voice and this time Aomine stopped to lift up his head and look at Kagami.

"What is it?" he asked, seeming to be snapped out of some sort of spell.

"I think we should stop," Kagami said, his breathing slightly heavy, "Plus I'm dead tired."

Aomine seemed to have realized what Kagami was talking about and sat up with a jolt.

"Ah… Sorry, wow… I probably wouldn't have stopped if you didn't say something. I've wanted to touch you for so long and it was feeling so good and-"

"I know that, so you don't have to say it out loud!" Kagami interrupted, blushing not from what they were doing just moments ago but from the words Aomine was saying.

Aomine gave a loud laugh and Kagami pushed him off, almost falling off the couch. Kagami straightened himself up as Aomine struggled to stay on the couch, trying to suppress his laughter.

"Sorry, your face was just priceless," he said, calming down.

"Whatever," Kagami lifted himself from off the couch.

"Hey! What are you doing, aren't you going to reply to my confession?" Aomine called after him.

"What the hell do you think all of what we did just now was!?" Kagami said looking frustrated at Aomine's apparent stupidity. But he really knew Aomine was just saying that to annoy him.

"Ah, sorry, sorry, I know," Aomine smiled, leaning over the back of the couch to watch Kagami walk into the kitchen. "Why are you acting so modest right now when only a few seconds ago you were totally into it?" Aomine continued to tease.

"Shut up, I'm new to this…" Kagami reached into the fridge for a bottle of water.

"My bad," Aomine continued to watch Kagami.

Kagami sighed, "Well… Since it's late you can stay the night if you want. But you have to sleep on the couch." Kagami mumbled.

"Huh? Why can't I sleep in your bed? I'm your boyfriend now, right?" Aomine asked.

"That's exactly why you  _can't_  sleep in my bed!" Kagami said sternly.

"Aw, come on, I won't try anything, plus I'm exhausted too. Please?" Aomine pleaded, which wasn't cute, but Kagami gave in anyway.

"Fine! But if you try anything I'm kicking you out of the apartment…" Kagami said heading into the bedroom. He came back out with a change of clothes and a new toothbrush for Aomine and threw them at him.

"I'll change in my room and you go change in the bathroom. Peek and I'll kill you," Kagami ordered and walked into his bedroom, closing the door.

Aomine would've liked to peek but he kind of valued his life a little too much for that so he obeyed his new boyfriend and went to change in the bathroom. They had worn each other's clothes before plenty of times before Kagami moved to America, but now it definitely felt different.

 _'It smells like him, this is kinda bad…'_  Aomine thought, but swept all dirty thoughts aside. If he wanted to not ruin his relationship on the first night he decided he should behave himself.

After changing and brushing his teeth he walked out into the living room and saw that Kagami was done changing.

"Oh, the shirt is kind of tight, huh? That sucks – you're still a little bigger than me, aren't you?" Kagami laughed and headed towards the bathroom to brush his teeth.

"I'll go lay down~" Aomine almost sang those words as he headed into Kagami's bedroom and lay on the bed.

_'Ahh, of course this smells like him too…'_

He knew nothing was going to happen tonight but just being able to sleep in the same bed as Kagami made him happy enough. Even though, again, that wasn't something new to the two of them, but now they were officially a couple. He really couldn't remember the last time he was this happy – probably before Kagami moved. Aomine just remembered feeling so bitter over the last year or two and he regretted wasting that time feeling that way if Kagami was going to accept his confession so easily…

Wait, Kagami really did accept it easily, didn't he? Aomine was so caught up in the moment that he didn't realize that Kagami seemed more than okay with them starting a romantic relationship together.

As Aomine mulled over this revelation, Kagami came back into the room.

"Hey, scoot over a little, my bed's not that big," Kagami said from behind Aomine.

Aomine obeyed and made room for Kagami who got under the sheets.

"Taiga, can I ask you something?" Aomine was going to be bothered by this if he didn't ask.

"What?"

"You accepted my confession pretty easily, I thought I might get some resistance from you or you would just be straight up disgusted with me… Did you feel the same way or something?"

Kagami opened and closed his mouth like a goldfish and turned his head away, "M-Maybe…"

"Since when!?" Aomine shouted, making Kagami jump slightly.

"P-Probably a little before you stopped talking to me?" Kagami responded.

Aomine gave a look of distress and heaved a huge sigh, putting his face in his hands. "Oh man. I'm such an idiot…" Aomine said in a muffled voice. "How could you even continue to like me after all that…?"

"Well…" Kagami said quietly, "I just didn't want to give up, I guess? I didn't want to give up on our friendship and I kind of had already fallen for you so…" Kagami's sentence dropped off and he was feeling a little shy admitting to it.

"Ahhh I messed up so bad!" Aomine said in an exasperated voice and flopped back onto the pillow. "I could've just asked you out over the summer instead of having to date all those stupid girls! I'm so depressed now!" He covered his face with the blanket and gave a frustrated moan.

The sight before him was amusing, but Kagami was a little bothered by one thing, "Oh yeah, how many girls did you date?" He asked nervously, he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer to that.

"I dunno… I lost count," Aomine's face was still buried under the covers.

"O-Oh…" Kagami felt a little hurt to hear that. So many he couldn't even keep count?

"It never really lasted very long with any of them because I kept trying to find one that would make me get over you but none of them worked out."

"So… That wasn't your first kiss?" Kagami asked quietly.

Aomine finally took the covers off his face and looked up to see Kagami looking upset. Ah, he hadn't really thought about how dating all those girls would make Kagami feel. Maybe one or two wouldn't have been so bad but he just admitted that he dated so many he couldn't keep up with them. He sat himself up, continuing to look in Kagami's direction.

"Uh, well… No it wasn't…" Aomine saw Kagami's face drop.

"Hah, I should've guessed since you're really good at kissing," Kagami tried to joke it off but it was obvious that he was still a little upset. He didn't want to make such a big deal out of not being each other's first kiss, especially when kids their age were doing all kinds of stuff with all kinds of people anyway. Kagami thought it might've been because he missed the opportunity for it. Also, Aomine had all this experience with other people while he didn't.

"Taiga," Aomine said in a serious tone, "Like I said, I really didn't feel anything for any of those girls. I kissed some of them because I thought maybe that would make me feel something for them, but it never worked. In fact, I couldn't understand what the big deal was about kissing because of that."

Kagami finally directed his gaze in Aomine's direction when Aomine grabbed a hold of his hand.

"But when I kissed you, it felt so much different. It actually felt good and I didn't want to stop. Well, you know that."

Kagami looked a lot better after Aomine assured him. "Yeah, I know. First kisses aren't that important anyway, I guess. I was just being a little possessive I suppose…"

"That's kind of hot, actually," Aomine said with a grin.

"Shut up!" Kagami laughed and gave him a light jab on the shoulder. "Well, have you done other stuff?" Kagami hoped he wouldn't regret asking that question either.

"Other stuff? Like sex?"

"Y-Yeah, I guess," Kagami couldn't believe Aomine's bluntness sometimes.

"Ah, nope," he said.

Kagami didn't want to show it on his face but he was beyond relieved to hear that.

"I never really dated any of the girls long enough to progress to that stage. Even though there were girls who wanted it right away," Aomine said and got a look from Kagami, "But like I said, nothing happened! I would always say I wasn't in the mood and they'd most likely dump me right after that. I'm surprised none of them spread rumors that I was impotent or something. I just couldn't bring myself to do it, I guess? Even though me and you weren't together, thinking about sleeping with them made me feel like I was going to cheat on you or something. Although, like most other teenage guys, I was always REALLY hor-"

"O-O-Okay, I get it!" Kagami interrupted.

Aomine laughed and Kagami settled himself into the bed.

"Well, I'm tired. Really tired. Even though I would like to keep talking," Kagami said drowsily.

"Hmm, you usually say something like 'I'm not tired at all' and fall asleep ten seconds after saying it," Aomine joked, lying himself next to Kagami.

"Whatever," Kagami softly smiled as the two faced each other.

They remained silent for a moment until Aomine noticed Kagami starting to doze off. Aomine could feel himself doing the same from all the events of the day finally catching up with him. He turned to lie on his back and quickly fell asleep.

* * *

In the morning, Aomine woke up and realized he wasn't in his room.

 _'Ah, so it wasn't a dream? Thank goodness…'_  he thought to himself.

He felt a weight on his shoulder and heard steady breathing next to him. He looked over and saw Kagami sleeping peacefully with his head resting on his shoulder. He didn't want to disturb this moment but not long after, Kagami stirred and slowly opened his eyes as if he felt Aomine's gaze on him. Or it could've been from the bright sunlight that was now pouring into the room.

"Hmm, good morning…" Kagami mumbled and settled back on Aomine's shoulder, still half asleep.

"Morning," Aomine leaned over to kiss Kagami on the forehead.

Even though this wasn't a dream, it sure felt like it. How many times had Aomine wished to be able to wake up next to Kagami just like this?

Kagami rolled over on his back and rubbed his eyes, "So that wasn't a dream, huh?" He said.

 _'He thought the exact same thing,'_  Aomine thought to himself, amused.

"Nope, it's real."

Aomine leaned in to give Kagami a kiss on the lips. Kagami's hand reached up and settled on the back of Aomine's kneck to bring him into a deeper kiss.

 _'Damn, he's too cute,'_  Aomine thought as he gave Kagami's top lip a light nip. Kagami moaned softly and sucked Aomine's bottom lip in response.

"Damn, Taiga, this is kind of bad…" Aomine said in a whisper after their lips separated.

"Yeah it is, I might have to go to the bathroom," Kagami replied and removed his hand from Aomine's neck.

"Huh?"

"I'm going to the bathroom…" Kagami sat up and went to get off the bed.

"H-Hey we could-"

"No," Kagami walked towards the door.

"But-"

"Nooope," Kagami left the room.

Aomine crashed back onto the bed in defeat.

 _'Oh well,'_  he thought,  _'We have nothing but time now, I suppose. Guess he's pretty firm about not rushing things even if we've already slept in the same bed.'_

Aomine gave a small laugh to himself and remained lying on the bed. He waited this long to be with Kagami so he didn't mind waiting to progress to the next step with him if it meant they were finally together. That just meant he had something to look forward to.

* * *

**~Omake~**

* * *

Not long after Kagami got up to walk to the bathroom, Aomine heard loud footsteps approaching the bedroom.

"Daiki!" Kagami burst in through the room with an embarrassed look on his face.

"What…?" Aomine was hoping he didn't somehow do something wrong.

"You gave me a hickey!" He shouted.

"Huh?"

Kagami pulled down the collar of his shirt and pointed to an area near his collar bone. "You're totally going to see this when I wear my jersey!"

Aomine saw a big red mark starting to bruise by Kagami's neck. He struggled to hold back a laugh.

"This isn't funny! We have a game today!" Kagami wasn't amused by the situation.

"Sorry…" Aomine struggled to say without laughing. He wasn't sorry.

"Jeeze…" Kagami ruffled his hands through his hair.

"If it makes you feel better, I'll let you give me one. Then we'll be matching," Aomine gave a sly grin.

Kagami just glared at Aomine after making his proposition and left the room.

"Aww, come on, Taiga!" Aomine got out of the bed and went after him.


	16. Chapter 16

It had been a couple months since the Interhighs ended and practices were starting to get more intense again with the impending start of Winter Cup. Touou dominated their way through the competition but ended up in second place with Rakuzan in first. Second was nothing to be disappointed in but it seemed like Rakuzan, the team Akashi Seijirou belonged to, was a team on a whole different level.

But Kagami was honestly more than happy with their placing. In fact, his life had been so good it was almost scary. Kagami wanted to win the tournament badly but just the fact that the team made it all the way to the top was one of the best experiences he's ever had. Not only that, but he was now dating his childhood friend and that made everything even better. It still kind of felt surreal that they were now together as an official couple. Even though they mostly did a lot of things together that they always did as friends, things just seemed a little more intimate now.

Aomine was quite affectionate in public even when Kagami objected to it. It wasn't much, just being overly touchy and wanting to do things like hold hands, but then people started to talk at school. It's not that Kagami wanted to hide the fact that they were dating, but two guys dating got more attention than wanted, and it wasn't always positive. Aomine would just give a menacing glare at anyone who started looking in their direction. People even started spreading rumors about how Aomine got bored with girls and started dating Kagami to try out guys. Aomine never showed a reaction to them so the rumors kind of died out. But the pain of the girls who were his fans still seemed to linger.

Of course, the first people who found out were Momoi and Kuroko. Kagami invited them both over to his apartment not long after they had started dating because Aomine insisted they let them know first. He was reminded of how Momoi got angry when he kept things like that from her. Kagami of course agreed but was a little nervous. Not only that, Momoi was their childhood friend and Kuroko was the other person that was the closest to them.

"H-Huh!? You two? Together? Really?" Momoi seemed pretty floored by the news.

Kuroko had pretty much the opposite reaction, "Oh, I'm glad you two have made it official. Congratulations," he even gave a slight smile.

"Eh!? You knew?" Momoi gave a shocked look at Kuroko.

"Wasn't it obvious?" He said in a flat tone.

"No!" She shouted.

But after the initial shock, Momoi seemed genuinely glad that her two friends were happy together.

"Even though I could've never imagined you two would end up together, I'll always support you guys," she said with a smile

"I guess I will forgive you for beating us so badly during the Interhigh," Kuroko joked.

Kagami wanted to invite Himuro over too but Aomine strongly objected. He was still a little bitter over their first meeting, even though time and time again Kagami told Aomine that Himuro was just teasing him. Kagami hoped that one day they would eventually get along…

So Kagami met up with Himuro outside of school at a court near his house to play basketball with him and break the news.

"Oh, so he finally got some balls and asked, huh?" Himuro said.

"You could tell he liked me too? Kuroko said kind of the same thing, was it really that obvious?"

"Yeah, it was really obvious," Himuro said with confidence.

"H-How come I never noticed?" Kagami asked.

"Well, Taiga, you're a great guy but you can be really dense about some things," Himuro patted Kagami's shoulder as if to give some reassurance. "I could tell you liked him too."

"Huh!?"

After that, people finding out just kind of naturally happened. The team was probably the next ones to know just because of Aomine's complete openness about it. Wakamatsu was probably the one who took the longest to get used to it, but it was pretty surprising how the majority of them were accepting of it. Although, that could've been due to the fact that getting on Aomine's bad side wasn't such a good idea. His attitude was a bit toned down when dealing with Kagami and Momoi but he was known to snap at even his teammates.

The last practice for the week had ended and everyone was in the locker room getting ready to leave. Kagami sat down on the bench right after getting out of the shower and changing into fresh clothes. He was waiting for Aomine to get finished with his shower now. Even though the team had accepted the two were dating they set down some rules for the two; one of which was that they couldn't be in the shower at the same time together (for obvious reasons).

"Wakamatsu-senpai, can you hand me that towel?" Kagami said, pointing to a towel that was on the other side of the bench next to Wakamatsu.

"S-Sure…" Wakamatsu stammered.

Wakamatsu still acted kind of strange around Kagami and it was kind of disheartening as he was one of the closest people to Kagami on the team. Wakamatsu seemed to try to accept the fact that two of his teammates were dating but was still seemed a little put off by it.

"Senpai… does it really bother you?" Kagami asked.

"Huh? Does what bother me?" Wakamatsu tried to play it off but he knew exactly what Kagami was talking about.

"You know… Aomine and I…" Kagami's eyes looked off to the side.

"Well…" Wakamatsu paused, "I-It's not so much that you're dating a guy as it is you're dating Aomine…" he said quietly.

"Huh? Really?" Kagami was surprised. "So it's just because you don't like Aomine?"

"Mostly… I would think you'd have better taste than that," Wakamatsu scratched the back of his neck, "I don't know what you see in him…"

Kagami snickered, "I'm glad it's because you don't think I'm gross," he smiled.

"I-I could never find you gross…" Wakamtsu turned away and blushed slightly.

Aomine walked up behind Kagami, leaned over, and wrapped his arms around Kagami's shoulders.

"We're going over to your place tonight, right?" Aomine said in a low tone in Kagami's ear.

Kagami broke free of Aomine's hold.

"I told you not to do that kind of stuff around other people!" He scolded.

"Oh, there was someone else here?" Aomine said sarcastically.

"Don't go announcing what you two are going to be doing later!" Wakamatsu shouted with a red face and stood up from the bench.

"We're not doing anything, he's just coming over! Daiki, that's why I said you shouldn't do stuff like that…" Kagami also stood up and glared at his boyfriend.

"My bad," Aomine smirked.

"Whatever, let's get going!" Kagami slung his bag over his shoulder and walked out of the room without waiting for Aomine.

* * *

Kagami and Aomine had gotten to the apartment; none of the lights were on so it was pretty dark. Only moments after the door had closed and their shoes were off Kagami felt Aomine's arm reach around his waist and lips on his neck. Kagami gave a sigh; his resistance was at a low point. They had been practicing so much lately that they didn't have much time alone together. Their gym bags dropped to the floor quickly and Kagami turned himself to face his boyfriend. Their lips met in a long kiss, Aomine rested his hands on Kagami's hips. Kagami wrapped his arms around Aomine's neck as their lips stayed connected and Aomine started to shuffle towards the bedroom.

"Daiki, we can't-"

"I know, I know, I just want to touch you some," they spoke in hushed breaths as they made their way to the bedroom.

The room was pitch black but they managed to find the bed by bumping into it. They continued to kiss each other here and there, hands exploring each other's torsos and making quiet sighs. Kagami lowered himself onto the bed, planning to bring Aomine with him until he felt himself sit on a lump.

"Huh?" he stopped in his tracks and let go of his grip on Aomine.

"What is it?" Aomine asked, confused why Kagami suddenly stopped.

"Something's lumpy on my bed…" he reached down to feel what he just sat on and it made a movement. Kagami jumped up, knocking into Aomine. "Shit! There's something in my bed!" he yelled.

The mass on his bed stirred again with a moan.

"What the hell is that!?" Aomine asked in surprise.

"I don't know!" Kagami panicked, not sure whether he should just run out of the apartment or call the cops.

The lump moved again, "Taiga, you're so loud…" a female voice mumbled in English from under the covers. The women sat up and turned on the light on the nightstand, rubbing her eyes. On top of that, she didn't seem to have any clothes on.

The two guys seemed to have been too shocked to say anything for a few moments but Aomine found his voice, a rather loud one.

"Who the fuck is that!?" Aomine asked in a more than angry yell.

The woman jumped at Aomine's yelling, "Ah!" she had just put on her glasses and noticed them standing there, pulling the covers over her higher to make sure her chest was covered.

"Alex!" Kagami finally spoke, looking shocked.

"Alex… Alex? That's Alex!?" Aomine said in surprise.

"Taiga, who is that?" Alex pointed in Aomine's direction, still speaking in English.

"Uh," Kagami's whole mind was in a jumble over the situation unfolding.

"What the hell are you doing naked in Taiga's bed?" Aomine snarled.

"Hey…"

"I don't have to answer you; I don't even know who you are," Alex had switched over to Japanese and crossed her arms, remaining firmly in place.

"Alex-"

"I think I have every right to ask why some woman is sleeping naked in my boyfriend's bed!" Aomine raised his voice again.

"Huh!? Boyfriend!?" Alex exclaimed with a wide-eyed look on her face. "Taiga, what the hell is going on!?"

"I've been trying to explain but you two won't shut up!" Kagami shouted and grabbed Aomine by the arm. "Alex, stay in here until I'm done talking to him. And put some clothes on!

"Taiga! What the hell-" Kagami slammed the door shut before Alex could finish her sentence.

Kagami made an agitated groan, leading Aomine to the living room.

"Uh, you're going to tell me what the hell that was all about, right?" Aomine had an irritated tone in his voice. He was obviously upset over the scene that just played out.

"That was just Alex," Kagami began to explain.

" _Just_ Alex?"

"Let me finish!" Kagami shouted, "There's nothing going on between us, if that's what you think. She coached me in basketball while I was in America. She told me she was going to come to Japan this week, she was supposed to be staying with Tatsuya until tomorrow so I don't know why she's here right now."

"That still doesn't explain why she was waiting for you naked in bed," Aomine's face still looked a bit peeved.

"She just… does that," Kagami attempted to explain, "She sleeps naked or with barely any clothes on. And she has a bad habit of sneaking into people's beds. As for how she found her way into my apartment, I'm assuming Tatsuya gave her the key."

Aomine's scowl remained on his face.

"Do you not believe me?" Kagami looked slightly hurt.

"That's not it…" He believed that Kagami would tell him the truth, but he definitely was not happy that a naked woman was in his boyfriend's house. "S-She's just in our bed… naked…" He grumbled.

"Our bed…" Kagami repeated in a low voice. "Anyway, I'm going to go get her and we can explain everything to her okay?

"Hey, wait!" Aomine grabbed Kagami's shoulder as he turned around.

"What?"

"What if she's still naked!?" Aomine made an attempt to pull Kagami back.

"It doesn't matter, I've seen her naked before."

"HUH!?" Aomine yelled and tightened his grip on Kagami's shoulder.

"Ow! That hurts you idiot!" Kagami tried prying Aomine's hand off of him.

"Okay! You two can stop yelling now, I'm not naked anymore!" The door to Kagami's bedroom opened and Alex walked out, now fully clothed.

Aomine shot a glare at her and Kagami managed to escape his grasp.

"Let's just… sit down…" Kagami felt like this was Aomine and Himuro all over again except worse.

They all sat down at the kitchen table, a thick tension was surrounding them. Alex was the first to cut through the atmosphere and spoke.

"So is this that Daiki kid?" Alex pointed in Aomine's direction.

"Yes…" Kagami replied quietly.

"I was just kidding when I said you liked him, so you really did huh?" She glanced back and forth between the two. Aomine still had a scowl on his face, "He's grumpier than I thought he'd be. I don't think he likes me," she said.

"Of course I don't!" Aomine blurted out.

Kagami sighed and placed a hand on his forehead, "Daiki there is nothing between us so please stop being so hostile…"

"Yeah, I don't sleep with bratty kids," Alex added.

"Alex…" Kagami groaned.

"I wouldn't think Taiga would cheat on me," Aomine grumbled, "It's just the fact that you were in my boyfriend's bed. Naked."

"Well I didn't know Taiga was going to bring his boyfriend over! Or that he even had one. Besides, where else was I supposed to go? Tatsuya kicked me out," Alex crossed her arms.

"Oh yeah, why are you here anyway? Why couldn't Tatusya let you stay until tomorrow like he's supposed to?" Tatsuya was pretty reliable so it was kind of a surprise that he would kick her out last minute.

"Something about inviting a friend over. I thought it was going to be a girl since I couldn't stay the night but as I was leaving some huge guy with purple hair came to the door."

"Murasakibara…?" Aomine spoke up.

"Oh? Do you know him? I think Tatsuya called him 'Atsushi' or something like that," Alex looked off in thought.

"Oh yeah, he's one of the Generation of Miracles, like Daiki, they went to middle school together," Kagami explained.

"I see, you told me about them when you were in America and that he was a part of them," Alex glanced over at Aomine, "How interesting, my two boys are having two members from these 'Miracles' over… Ah!" She seemed to have made some sort of realization. "Ah… Ah… What if Tatsuya brought him over for the same reason you brought that grouch over!?"

"Huh?" Kagami asked confused.

"Ah, these Generation of Miracles are turning my boys gay! I won't ever be a grandma!" Alex made an exaggerated motion of putting the back of her hand up to her forehead.

"I-I never heard of Tatsuya dating anyone though," Kagami seemed a little surprised.

"I'm kidding, who knows if they're together or not," Alex waved her hand side to side.

Aomine hadn't been saying much, "Are you alright?" Kagami asked.

"I just wanted to spend tonight with you," Aomine shot a look at Alex, "Alone." He was pouting.

"I know but I can't just kick Alex out…" Kagami was really looking forward to having alone time with Aomine too, but Alex was like his older sister so he couldn't necessarily turn her away.

"I can just sleep in the spare room and use your futon. Just shut the door and maybe give me a pair of earplugs so I don't have to hear you guys," Alex replied casually.

"We're not going to do anything!" Kagami blushed. Aomine made an inaudible grumble.

"Well, I suppose I could see how much money I have for a hotel…"

"I'll help," Aomine went to reach for his wallet in his pockets until Kagami shot a look at him and paused in place.

"No, Alex, it's fine. You're supposed to be staying at my place starting tomorrow anyway so one night won't matter," Kagami made an attempt at a smile.

"Aww, Taiga you're so sweet," she got up and gave Kagami a quick peck on the cheek.

"HEY!" Aomine yelled, slamming his hands on the table and jolting up from his chair.

"Wow, chill…" Alex put her hands up.

"Daiki, please…" Kagami sighed for the umpteenth time.

Alex laughed and walked towards the spare room and started taking her shirt off.

"Don't start taking your clothes off already!" Aomine shouted.

Alex just clicked her tongue and walked into the room, closing the door.

"You're over reacting over everything," Kagami stood up and grabbed Aomine by the wrist. "Let's just go back to my room and calm down."

After everything settled down a bit and they got ready to head to bed, the couple had returned to Kagami's bedroom. Aomine still seemed to be in a sour mood.

Kagami gave a concerned look, "Are you still upset?" Kagami sat down on the bed next to Aomine.

"I just wanted it to be the two of us…" Aomine grumbled.

"Well, I can't just kick Alex out. It's unexpected but right now we're alone, yeah?" Kagami rubbed Aomine's back in the hopes to get him out of his bad mood.

"Yeah I know…" Aomine said frustrated.

Kagami leaned in and gave Aomine a kiss on the cheek, "Cheer up?" Kagami kissed him again on the lips.

Aomine was completely weak to Kagami and decided to just let the situation be put to rest. He leaned onto Kagami, pushing him down on the bed. Kagami gave a light chuckle and Aomine gave him a deeper kiss before lying down next to Kagami with his arm wrapped around him. Kagami grabbed Aomine's hand and laced their fingers together.

"I love you," Aomine said quietly, looking into Kagami's eyes.

A warm smile spread across Kagami's face. This was a face only Aomine could see and it made him incredibly happy to know that he was the only one that could make Kagami have this expression.

"I love you too," Kagami replied.

"I have something to give you, actually…" Aomine said after a moment of silence, "I wanted to give it to you tonight but the mood got kind of ruined…"

"Huh? What is it?" Kagami asked.

"Ah… I guess I could give it to you now anyway," Aomine got up and off the bed to get his wallet. "You know how we didn't really celebrate our birthdays because there was so much going on with the Interhighs? Well I still wanted to make it up to you and get you a present," Aomine seemed a little bashful as he sat back down on the bed.

Kagami looked on in curiosity as Aomine dug through his wallet. Aomine pulled out a gold ring and held it out to Kagami.

"Y-You don't have to take Himuro's off or anything but… I wanted us to have matching rings too…" Aomine blushed.

Kagami seemed stunned and slowly reached out to grab the ring. He turned it over in his fingers and almost seemed fascinated by it.

"Here's mine," Aomine pulled out an identical ring and put it on his ring finger.

Kagami smiled and wrapped his arms around Aomine, "Thank you," his voice sounded tearful but happy.

He let go of Aomine and placed the ring on his ring finger as well.

"You don't want to put it on your necklace?" Aomine asked.

"No, I want to match you," Kagami said with a smile. He stared at it on his hand, "I feel like we're getting married or something."

"W-Well this is just because… I want us to have something that we share together," Aomine's face reddened. "Marriage is later…" he mumbled quietly.

But Kagami heard and let out a laugh. He once again pulled Aomine into an embrace and their lips met again. Kagami gave a little nip at Aomine's bottom lip. Aomine's tongue eased its way into Kagami's mouth and they found themselves in a slow, sensual kiss.

"Man, this is why I didn't want Alex here…" Aomine groaned when the two separated their lips.

"Why is that?" Kagami asked in a quiet voice.

"Well, because I knew you'd be really happy about me giving you the ring and you'd be all loving and…" Aomine paused when he saw the look Kagami was giving him.

"Is that the only reason you gave me the ring?" Kagami asked, his eyes narrowing.

"No! I really wanted us to have rings together! It's just… I thought we could consummate it or something. Since you know, we haven't… yet…" Aomine trailed off as Kagami's judging glare was not disappearing from his face.

Kagami didn't say a word and just rolled over to his side facing away from Aomine.

"Taiga!" Aomine whined, trying to roll him back over.

Kagami knew that Aomine's intentions weren't completely impure but it was fun to mess with him a bit.

"I'm sorry…" Aomine put his head against Kagami's back. Kagami tried to hold back his laughter.

"Hey… are you laughing?" Aomine seemed to have noticed when Kagami couldn't help but let out a muffled laugh.

Kagami just shook his head from side to side.

"Yes you are," Aomine gave Kagami's behind a light slap which caused him to turn around on reflex.

"Don't smack my butt!" Kagami couldn't hold back his laughter anymore.

Aomine took the opportunity to grab Kagami and pull him close to him, silencing Kagami with a kiss.

"Don't tease me like that," Aomine said.

"But it's so easy to," Kagami replied slyly.

"You're really asking for it," Aomine said and dove his face into Kagami's neck.

"Ah! Stop, Daiki, seriously!" Kagami said in between laughs.

"Nope," Aomine mumbled licking and sucking the same area of Kagami's neck.

"Nn, I hate it when you leave a mark!" Kagami smacked Aomine's back.

"Ow!" Aomine jerked his head up to glare at Kagami.

Kagami just smiled and rested his hands around Aomine's back, "Let's just sleep for tonight, alright? When Alex is gone we'll be able to be alone again."

"How long is she staying?" Aomine was getting kind of excited over what Kagami was implying.

"Maybe about two weeks…" He mumbled.

"Uhg, that's too long!" Aomine groaned and flopped down on top of Kagami.

"You'll survive," Kagami patted his back. "Maybe I can get her to go over to Tatsuya's place one night since he dumped her on me for tonight."

Aomine lifted up his head, "If he does that for us I'll forgive him for everything he's done."

Kagami laughed, "Then you guys can finally make friends?"

"Let's not get too carried away," Aomine set his head back down and hugged Kagami's body tighter. "I don't mind waiting though, really," Aomine had a more serious tone to his voice. "I mean, I really want to do it with you but I'm so incredibly happy to just be with you at this moment that it almost makes me dizzy."

Kagami ran a hand through Aomine's hair, "I haven't heard you say so much cheesy stuff until we started dating," he joked. "I'm just kind of nervous about it… but I want to do it too when I'm ready."

"Ahh man. Whenever you are you have to tell me right away," Aomine nuzzled into Kagami's neck.

"What if it's during school?"

"We'll do it in the locker room," Aomine mumbled which earned him a bonk on the head.

It may have taken years for them to get to this point, but now they had finally figured out what it was that missing from their lives. Even if there were times that seemed almost too painfully difficult to go through, there were also times that made them realize that their life had meaning because of each other. Whether they were separated by miles of land and ocean or whether they were in each other's arms, they had, and will, always be together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you very much for reading my first AoKaga story and one of my very first fics. This story helped me learn a lot and hopefully I've improved since then. I hope if you read this story you enjoyed it.  
> Here are some other side-facts about the story that I didn't really get the opportunity to write about:
> 
> \- Aomine's first date ended up in him getting dumped. The girl wanted to head to a love hotel (who'd let two middle schoolers in!?) but he said "Nah, not tonight..." and she didn't take it so well. Not a very classy girl, huh?
> 
> \- Aomine didn't want to tell Kagami, but he actually came very close to sleeping with a girl. But once they got to his room (his parents weren't home, how naughty) he couldn't go through with it... Another harsh break with an added slap to the face.
> 
> \- Aomine and Kagami still haven't done "it" because Kagami is nervous and secretly thinks in the back of his mind, "who is going to be on bottom?" Aomine is very understanding although he's not sure how much he can hold back when they finally do it. He's pretty confident he'll top.
> 
> \- Aomine and Kagami have actually done a few naughty things despite that (wouldn't you like to know what those things are, hehe).
> 
> \- Wakamatsu might have had a crush on Kagami!? I'm not even sure! But he definitely felt slightly jealous to find out that Kagami was dating Aomine.
> 
> \- Kagami actually plays the same position as Aomine (Power Forward) in the manga but in this story he's a 6th Man (like Kuroko!). The 6th Man is an all-around player but considering Centers and Power Forwards have similar positions he often get's switched out with Aomine and Wakamatsu. Aomine and Kagami don't mind that sometimes during games they don't get to be on the court together because they enjoy watching each other play. Also, Centers get to do jump balls often and we all know how good Kagami is at jumping. (See, I did a little bit of research for the sake of this fic haha)
> 
> \- The girl that asked Kagami out has started dating a very nice second year boy who had a crush on her ever since he met her (aww yay). She is also very supportive of Kagami and Aomine's relationship.


End file.
